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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


i/ 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 


r~n    Covers  damaged  / 


Couverture  endommag^e 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restauree  "''ou  pellicul6e 


n 

I      I    Cover  title  miss  - .     l;.'  i     '  de  couverture  manque 
[ I   Coloured  maps  /  ui  ^r  -  giojraphiques  en  couleur 

D 


Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


□    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

□Bounc 
Relie  < 


Bound  with  other  material  / 
avec  d'autres  documents 


□ 


D 


Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion  along 
interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de 
I'om.bre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have  been 
omitted  from  filming  /  Use  peut  que  certaines  pages 
blanches  ajout6es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  ce!  6tait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  6t6  filmees. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppt6mentaires: 


Llnstitut  a  microtilme  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
ete  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-etre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibii- 
ographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modification  dans  la  metho- 
de  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiques  ci-dessous 

I         Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommagees 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaurees  et/ou  pelhculees 


Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
\l'    I    Pages  d6colorees,  tachetees  ou  piqu6es 

Pages  detached  /  Pages  detachees 

Showrthrough  /  Transparence 

□   Quality  of  pnnt  varies  / 
Quality  inegale  de  I'impression 


□ 


n 


Includes  supplementary  matenal  / 
Comprend  du  matenel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata  slips, 
tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalemen*  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6t6  film6ss  a  nouveau  de  fa^on  a 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  coloura»'on  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant  ayant  des 
colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
film^es  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


This  item  i*  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below  / 

Cc  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu*  ci-de«sou«. 


lOx 

14x 

-S8X 

22x 

26x 

30x 

V'' 

19« 

-Ifix 

20x 

24x 

28x 

32x 

The  copy  filmed  h«r«  haa  baan  raproducad  thanka 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of: 

St.  Michael's  College,  Toronto 
John  M.  Kelly  Library 

Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
possibia  conaidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  ana  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apaeificationa. 


L'axamplaira  film*  fut  raproduit  grica  A  la 
gAntrotit*  da: 

St.  Michael's  College,  Toronto 
John  M.  Kelly  Library 

Laa  imagaa  suivantaa  ont  AtA  raproduita*  avac  la 
plua  grand  toin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  raiamplaira  film*,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  conditiona  du  contrat  da 
fiimaga. 


Original  copiaa  '    printad  papar  covara  ara  filmad 
beginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
:ha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impraa- 
aion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  beginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impraa- 
aion,  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  llluatratad  impraaaion. 


Laa  axamplairaa  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  ImprimAa  tont  filmAa  tn  commancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  toit  par  la 
darniAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraasion  ou  d'illuatration.  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  laa  autras  axamplatras 
originaux  sont  filmAa  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniAra  pa  ja  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  laat  recorded  frame  on  eech  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"l.  or  the  symbol  Y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  appliea. 

Mapa.  pSatea,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  redtction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  expoaure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framea  aa 
required.  The  following  diagrama  llluatrata  the 
method: 


Un  dea  aymbolaa  suivanta  apparaixra  sur  la 
darniire  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  salon  la 
caa:  la  symbole  ^»>signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
sy^nbole  ▼  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartaa.  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  itre 
film«8  A  dea  taux  de  reduction  diff*rents. 
Loraque  le  document  eat  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clichA.  il  est  film*  A  partir 
da  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite. 
et  de  haut  an  bas,  an  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imegea  nAcaaaaira.  Lea  diagrammes  suivai^ts 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


1  2  3 

4  5  6 


MiCROCOPY   RESOIUTION   TEST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


I.I 


Mm  |2g 

163 

^        14.0 


2.5 


2.0 


1.8 


1.4 


1.6 


A  -^F^PLIED  IIVMGE     Inc 

^^  16^J   Eost    Main   Street 

TJS  Snchester,   Ne«   York        U609       USA 

^B  ; '16)   482  -  0300  -  Phone 

aa  (716)   288  -  5989  -  f ..  . 


1 


Sacerdotal  Safeguards 


/s-^ 


*-■. 


CASUAL  READINGS  FOR 
RECTORS  AND  CURATES 


BV 

ARTHUR  r.ARRV  O'NF.II.L.  C.  S,  C,  LL.  1). 

/liif/ior  of  "Hntstly  Fracticr,'   "Ctrrual  i'ollotttiits.'  etc. 


Skcom)    I'JUTION 
(  /'/////    TIlOKSillliI) 


[•Xr\I-.RSn'Y  TRl'SS 
1".  ().   i!()X  m-A 

NOTRE  DAMR,  I  \  PI  ANA,  V.  S.  A. 

I.ONIION-  :     1',.     lIlRHFR 


Pecml0du  Superior u 111 

GILBERT  us  !•  KAN  CMS, 


l^ibil  Obi«tnt 


Imprimatur 


iiiif-  Gen.  tviijir.  a  S.  Omi* 


J.  15.  SCHEIER,  C.  S.  C, 


LVd.'cr   Defulatus 


^  II.  J.  ALERDING, 


Bishop  of  Fort  Wayne 


COPVmOHT,   1018 


A.  B.  O'NEILL 


HAMMOND  PRESS 

W>  H.  CONKCV  COMPANr 

CHICAGO 


TO 

Z^t  Verp  jReb.  ^ilhnt  jfrnntaii,  C.  §^.  C.» 

WHOSE  CORDIAL  ENCOURAGEMENT  AS  CONGENIAL  FRIEND 
EVEN   MORE  THAN   HIS   HIGH  APPHOVAL  AS   RE- 
LIGIOUS SUPERIOR  HAS  SWEETENED  AND 
LIGifTENED   THE    LABOR    OF    ITS 
WRlilNG   Tilts   BOOK    IS 
ATFEC  TIONATELY 


W  atcateb 


1 


/  > 

i 

\  ■'' ' 

CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAQB 

Foreword  7 

I.     American  Priests  and  Foreign  Missions 9 

II.    The  Priest  aiid  the  School 26 

III.  The  Priest's  Table 49 

IV.  The  Fraternal  Charity  of  Priests 66 

V.  Rubrical  Odds  and  Ends  (Queries  at  a  Conference)     85 

VI.    Priestly  Mortification Ill 

VII.     The  Priest  and  Non-Catho'us 131 

VIII.     The  Prie  t'«  Housekeeper 150 

IX.     Living  by  the  Gospel 167 

X.     The  Rubrics  of  English 189 

XL    A  Clerical  Club-Nig^t 216 

XII.     The  Priest  and  Social  Problems 230 

XIII.  The  Priest  as  Traveller 260 

XIV.  A  Priestly  Knight  of  Maiy 280 


Illtl 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

(To  Second  Edition) 

TI^HEN  the  author's  first  book  for  the  clergy, 
jy    "Priestly  Practice,"  went  into  a  second  edi- 
tion in  less  than  six  months  after  its  appearance, 
his  publishers  somewhat  complacently  styled  it 
"the  clerical  best-seller  of  1914."    The  larger  first 
edition  of  "Clerical  Colloquies"  was  disposed  of, 
in  1916,  with  equal  rapidity;  and,  although  the  first 
edition  of  the  present  work  was  about  twice  as 
large  as  the  initial  issue  of  "Priestly  Practice," 
the  demand  for  another  edition  has  come  when  the 
book  is  scarcely  more  than  two  months  old.    Or- 
ders for  about  one-fourth  of  the  whole  first  edition 
were  received  indeed  before  the  page-proofs  of  the 
volume  were  corrected,— a  compliment  obviously 
paid  to  the  two  works  mentioned  above  rather  than 
to  the  present  book. 

While  this  exceptionally  rapid  sale  is  naturally 
welcome  to  both  publishers  and  author,  the  latter 
at  least  is  sUll  more  gratified  by  the  uniformly 
laudatory  tone  in  which  such  competent  critics  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  as  have  thus  far  in  pri- 
vate letters  or  public  print  expressed  their  opinion 
of  the  book  have  spoken  of  its  merits  and  its  worth 
The  London  Month  is  kind  enough  to  say  that  the 
work  "is  characterized  by  the  same  soundness  and 
moderation  of  view,  the  same  wide  reading  and 
observation,   and  the  same   unforced   humor  as 
mark  the  author's  previous  brightly  written  vol- 
umes."   America  remarks  that  the  author  "has 
again  made  all  priests  his  debtors,"  and  adds- 
Father  O'Neill's  ideals  are  invariably  high  and 
eminently  sensible,  he  talks  fearlessly  and  plainly 


ir 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


> 


when  occasion  requires,  while  on  a  disputed  ques- 
tion he  is  sure  to  be  moderate  and  open-minded." 
The  Rosary  Magazine  declares  that:  "Just  because 
the  author  is  never  an  extremist,  this  work  will  ap- 
peal mightily  to  the  priest,  who,  finding  at  first 
time  to  read  but  one  chapter,  will  most  certainly 
make  time  to  read  all  the  others." 

Especially  grateful  to  the  author,  and  worth- 
while to  his  prospective  readers,  is  the  apprecia- 
tive critique  with  which  the  book  has  been  hon- 
ored in  the  Ecclesiastical  Review,  with  its  conclud- 
ing hope,  "We  trust  that  Father  O'Neill  will  find 
further  matter  for  the  composition  of  similar  use- 
ful books  for  the  clergy."  Over  in  France  a  work 
of  exceptional  literary  distinction  is  "crowned"  by 
the  French  Academy.  In  this  country  the  equiv- 
alent of  such  "crowning,"  in  so  far  as  clerical  books 
are  concerned,  may  well  be  the  discriminating 
praise  and  cordial  approbation  of  that  Sir  Hubert 
Stanley  of  the  American  priesthood,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Heuser. 


FOREWORD 

QHOULD  any  apology  be  needed  for  the  publica- 
-J  tion  of  this  book,  it  may  be  found  in   the 
generous  welcome  accorded  by  prelates,  priests, 
and  press  to  "Priestly  Practice,"  and  "Clerical  Col- 
loquies."   Shortly  after   the   appearance   of   the 
second  volume,  two  years  ago,  the  author  received 
one  day  two  kindly  messages  from  distinguished 
members  of  the  American  hierarchv.     One  ran, 
"Don't  be  afraid  to  write  a  third  oook";  the  other! 
"Keep  on  writing  books  of  this  kind;  you  can  do  it, 
and  we  need  them."  The  reviewers  proved  equally 
appreciative.    "The  American  priest,"  wrote  one, 
"has  an  intensely  human  side.    Books  written  for 
his  edification  and  instruction,  generally  by  for- 
eigners, have  as  a  rule  overlooked  this  important 
consideration.     It  has  been  left  to  an  American 
clerical  writer  to  supply  the  want."    "And,  last  of 
all,"  concludes  another  priest-editor,  "the  book 
touches  upon  precisely  those  points  of  the  priestly 
life  which,  as  a  rule,  are  skimmed  over  or  treated 
lightly  in  the  Mterature  destined  for  clerics." 

If  any  further  encouragement  was  required  to 
determine  the  author  to  make  yet  a  third  venture 
in  the  field  of  sacerdotal  literature,  it  was  fur- 
nished by  a  prelate  of  the  Eternal  City.  In  the 
course  of  a  lengthy  notice  of  the  two  books  men- 
tioned above,  the  late  editor  of  Rome  wrote: 
"The  author  has  now  got  into  his  stride,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  he  will  yet  give  us  more  than 
one  other  bright,  edifying,  human  book  of  the  same 
kind,  for  there  is  a  great  dearth  of  them  in  the 
English  language.  .  .  .  Obviously,  there  is 
plenty  of  scope  left  for  other  essays  on  kindred 

7 


8 


FOREWORD 


topics,  and  those  who  have  rf>ad  these  first  two 
volumes  will  eagerly  look  forward  to  any  others 
that  Father  Barry  O'Neill  may  give  us." 

Some  of  these  kindred  topics  are  treated  in  the 
present  volume,  and  the  author  indulges  the  hope 
that  their  nature  will  prove  as  interesting  and  their 
discussion  as  readable  as,  his  friends  are  pleased 
to  assure  him,  are  the  substance  and  style  of  his 
previous  books.  Three  of  the  chapters,  indeed, 
have  already  successfully  run  the  critical  gauntlet; 
they  have  appeared  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Review, 
whose  editor,  not  less  kindly  than  scholarly,  has 
consented  to  their  reproduction. 

In  view  of  such  strictures  on  clerical  imperfec- 
tions as  the  reader  will  occasionally  find  in  the 
following  pages,  it  may  be  well  to  sta*e  that  the 
author  is  far  from  arrogating  to  himself  any  such 
eminence  in  learning  or  such  rectitude  of  conduct 
as  would  warrant  his  setting  himself  up  as  an 
authoritative  censor  of  his  brother  priests.  He 
disclaims  any  pretension,  as  he  certainly  has  no 
right,  to  preach  at  any  other  cleric  than  one — the 
individual  designated  in  Shakespeare's  "I  will 
chide  no  heathen  in  the  world  but  myself,  against 
whom  I  know  most  faults."  Every  man  has  the 
right  to  censure  and  deplore  his  past  errors  and 
mistakes;  and  if,  in  the  mirror  which  the  author 
holds  up  to  himself,  any  of  his  readers  think  they 
discern  their  own  features,  that,  he  submits,  is 
rather  their  misfortune  than  his  fault.  In  any 
case,  oremus  pro  invicem. 

A.  B.  O'N.,  C.  S.  C. 

Octave  of  the  Epiphany,  1918. 


AMERICAN  PRIESTS  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

for  they  are  white  already  to  harvest.— /oA»:  n-,  ss.  ' 

\nd   ■eeing   the   multitude,   He   had    compaasion   on    them: 

,.««S^!7r®"^'  °*  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  ought  to 

n^HE  average  American  priest,  and  especially  the 
A    naUve-born  cleric  racy  of  the  soil,  would  prob- 
ably resent  as  a  downright  calumny  the  imputation 
that  he  is  narrow,  circumscribed  in  his  views,  illib- 
eral in  his  sympathies,  and  parochial  in  his  acUvi- 
ties.     With  not  a  little  complacency,  and  with 
more  or  less  jusUce,  he  is  apt  to  consider  himself 
•  'te  the  reverse  of  all  this.    If  he  does  not  exactly 
.me  himself  on  his  notable  breadth  of  view,  his 
widespread  interest,  his  large-hearted  tolerance, 
and  his  unselfish  generosity,  he  is  at  least  free  from 
any  consciousness  that  he  lacks  these  qualities,  and 
IS  accordingly  fairly  well  satisfied  with  his  attitude 
toward  his  friends   and   acquaintances   and   the 
world  in  general.    Whether  or  not  that  satisfac- 
tion is  really  warranted  is  a  question  the  discus- 
sion of  which  in  these  pages  would  perhaps  be 
more  futile  than  fruitful;  but  there  can  be  nothing 
offensive  in  the  suggestion  that  our  average  Ameri- 
can priest  may  profitably  examine  just  how  much 
broad-mindedness,  interest,  sympathy,  and  gen- 
erosity he  habitually  displays  in  connection  with 
the  Church's  Foreign  Missions. 


10 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


s 


I 


Such  an  examination  is  peculiarly  timely  at 
present,  because  of  the  altered  conditions  of  the 
Missions  and  their  sources  of  supply  since  the  out- 
break of  the  European  War.  For  the  past  four 
years  the  Catholic  press  in  all  lands  of  both  hem- 
ispheres has  repeatedly  called  attention  to  a  fact 
the  obviousness  of  which  might  be  supposed  to 
render  iteration  superfluous :  that  the  upkeep  and 
the  progress  of  the  Foreign  Missions  for  the  next 
decade  or  so  will  be  dependent,  principally,  on  the 
aid  received  from  America.  No  reader  of  this 
book  needs  to  be  told  why  this  is  the  case.  The 
dearth  of  men  and  money  in  those  lands  which 
have  heretofore  been  the  mainstay  of  the  Church's 
evangelizing  forces  in  pagan  countries  is  an 
outstanding  and  lamentable  fact  of  contempo- 
rary history;  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
the  dearth  will  for  some  years  survive  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  war  that  has  brought  it  about.  The 
urgent  need  of  America's  assistance  is  accordingly 
manifest. 

As  for  the  congruity,  not  to  say  the  duty,  of  fur- 
nishing that  assistance,  no  elaborate  argument 
would  s>:rr»  to  be  necessary  to  convince  any 
thoughtful  cleric  that  the  Foreign  Missions  have 
a  quasi-right  to  expect  American  Catholics  to  con- 
tribute generously  to  their  subsistence.  vSThen  our 
Saviour  said  to  His  Apostles,  "Going,  therefore, 
teach  ye  all  nations:  baptizing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
.  and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world,"  He  evidently  laid  upon  His 
Church  a  charge  that  was  to  endure  as  long  as 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


]] 


there  remain  on  earth  heathens  to  be  evangelized. 
Ihis  apostohc  commission   is   addressed   to   the 
Church  of  to-day  not  less  forcibly  than  to  that  of 
the  first  century,  and  to  the  Church  in  America 
not  less  directly  than  to  the  Church  in  France, 
Belgium,  Italy,  or  Spain.     The  work  of  actually 
preaching  and  baptizing  belongs  of  course  to  the 
missionary   priests;    but,    as    Cardinal    Wiseman 
declared   some   sixty   years   ago,   "Certainly    the 
whole  Church— including,  therefore,   the  laity- 
have  their  part  in  this  solemn  duty:  the  Apostles 
themselvfs  collected  the  alms  of  the  first  faithful, 
to  enable  themselves  to  carry  it  out." 

In  a  general  way,  then,  the  obligation  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  and  laity  of  this  country  to  do  their 
part   m    the    evangelization    of    the    heathen    is 
acknowledged  by  all  priests:  the  desideratum  is 
that  it  should  be  avowed,  and  discharged    in  a 
specific  way  by  the  individual  pastor.     The  old 
adage  that  what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's 
business  is  verified   all   too  frequently  in   these 
Lnited  States  when  there  is  question  of  aiding  the 
Fcieign  Missions.    Not  of  course  that  there  are  not 
many  priests  who  are  acquitting  themselves  of 
their  full  duty  in  this  matter;  but  it  is  probably 
true  to  say  that  such  priests  are  the  exception 
rather  than  the  rule.    If  the  average  priest  were 
as  zealous  in  this  good  work  as  is  the  exceptional 
one,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  the  financial  contribu- 
tions to  the  Missions  would  be  increased  by  several 
hundred  per  cent.    Is  it  not  worth  while  for  this 
average  priest  to   take  thought  of  his  personal 
responsibility   in   the  matter,   and  visualize   the 


12 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


various  practicable  methods  by  which  he  may 
acquit  himself  of  his  individual,  proportional  share 
of  an  obligation  certainly  incumbent  upon  the 
American  Catholic  body  as  a  whole? 

As  has  been  said,  our  Foreign  Missions  are  at 
present,  and  are  likely  to  be  for  some  years  to 
come,  in  urgent  need  of  men  and  money.  In  the 
mind  of  the  present  writer,  there  is  no  parish 
priest  in  the  United  States  who,  with  a  little  good- 
will, cannot  materially  help  in  supplying  them 
with  both.  As  between  the  two  requisites,  while 
the  first,  men,  is  the  more  essential  and  in  the  long 
run  absolutely  indispensable,  the  second,  money, 
is  almost  equally  necessary  and  is  far  more  speed- 
ily available.  Pretermitting  for  the  moment  any 
consideration  of  the  priest's  effective  activity  in 
increasing  the  number  of  missionaries  in  the  for- 
eign field,  let  us  see  how  he  may  augment  the 
resources  of  the  actual  workers  in  that  field. 

The  simplest  and  most  direct  method  by  which 
a  pastor  may  lessen  the  burden  of  financial  worry 
habitually  borne  by  the  foreign  missionary  is  to 
organize  in  his  parish  branches  of  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  and  the  Association 
of  the  Holy  Childhood.  The  former  organization, 
as  most  readers  of  this  volume  are  doubtless  aware, 
is  an  international  association  the  purpose  of 
which  is  to  assist  by  prayer  and  alms  CathoHc  mis- 
sionary priests.  Brothers,  and  Sisters  engaged  in 
spreading  the  Gospel  in  heathen  and  non-Catholic 
countries.  Conditions  of  membership  are  of  the 
simplest:  the  recitation  of  a  daily  prayer  for  the 
missions  and  a  contribution  of  at  least  five  cents 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


13 


monthly  to  the  general  fund.  The  ordinary 
method  for  gathering  the  contribuUons  is  to  form 
the  association  into  bands  of  ten.  of  whom  one 
acts  as  promoter  These  promoters  turn  over  the 
oflfenngs  to  a  local  diocesan  director  by  whom 
hey  are  forwarded  to  the  general  committee.  Per- 
^n^lr    "^K  *°"  °^  '^^  ^«"«^«  «  y^««-  «re  called 

of  at  least  forty  dollars  makes  one  a  perpetual 
member.  As  for  the  Association  of  the  Holv  Child- 
hood, membership  *herein  entails  on  the"^part  of 
children  a  monthly  contribution  of  one  cent,  or  a 
yearly  one  of  twelve  cents,  and  the  daily  recita- 

V'V^J  """  ^"'^'"  ^^*»»  *he  addition.  "Holy 
Virgn  Mary,  pray  for  us  and  for  the  poo;  pagan 
children."  Should  any  clerical  fln,.ncier  Se 
inclmed  to  smile  at  the  disproportion  between  a 

toe  ForTJiV"  •  ^"^  ^O'-th-while  assistance  to 
the  Foreign  Missions,  an  eflFective  check  to  his 

Zmtn  ^^Z^^^  ^y  *^'  '*"*"'"^°*  **^«t  'ome  seven 
million  children  are  enrolled  in  the  Assoc  aUon 
and  that  since  its  foundation  in  1843  it  has  ^"ven 
to  the  Missions  fully  thirty-two  million  dollars  and 

children        ""'""'  ^'°"*  ^^«^*^^"  ™"^*-  "««- 

h.t^  ^'^S^'""  illustration  of  the  intimate  relation 
ollZT'  ^^","u^^  contributions  to  the  Missions  and 
conversions  of  heathens  is  presented  in  the  remark 

to  PnThr?? ^ir/'j"'*  ^"  Hyderabad  (Hindustan) 
o  Father  Hull.  S.  J.,  editor  of  the  Bombay  Exam- 
u^r:  "Give  me  twenty-four  dollars,  and  in  a  yeTr 
III  give  you  five  hundred  Christians.  How?  Quite 
simply:  that  sum  will  pay  a  catechist  for  a  year 


m 


14 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


in  which  time  he  can  instruct  Ave  hundred  who 
are  asking  fir  baptism."    An  additional  incentive 
to  priestly  activity  in  securing  funds  for  so  excel- 
lent a  purpose  is  the  knowledge  that  Protestants 
are  thoroughly  alive  to  the  relation  we  have  men- 
tioned, that  between  money  and  conversions.    A 
recent  report  of  the  United  States  branch  of  thr 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  after 
stating  that  two-thirds  of  the  Foreign  Missions 
revenue  has  been  cut  off  by  the  war,  adds:    "To 
make  matters  worse,  Protestant  missionaries,  who 
are  at  all  times  one  of  the  most  powerful  obstacles 
to  the  planting  of  the  true  Christian  Faith,  are 
increasing  their  efforts  to  supplant  our  priests  and 
to  take  up  the  work  which  the  latter  may  have  to 
abandon  for  lack  of  resources.   The  receipts  of  the 
Protestant  boards  of  Foreign  Missions  are  larger 
than  ever,  and  their  activity  abroad  is  increased 
in  proportion."    A  pertinent  commentary  on  the 
foregoing  is  the  fact,  vouched  for  by  a  Catholic 
journal  of  India,  that  Protestants  made  about  as 
many  converts  in  that  country  in  one  century,  the 
nineteenth,  as  it  took  Catholics  four  centuries  to 
reach,  the   adequate   explanation  being  :^    "They 
have  greater  resources  and  utilize  them." 

To  return  from  this  quasi-digression  to  the 
average  American  priest's  attitude  toward  these 
societies  that  d-rectly  aid  the  Foreign  Missions: 
what  genuine  obstacle  prevents  him  from  estab- 
lishing in  his  parish  branches  of  both  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  and  the  Associa- 
tion of  the  Holy  Childhood?  Does  he  allege  the 
multiplicity  of  home  needs  and  the  difficulty  of 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


1  = 


»Iai»!"— 

«  is  iiot 

orderfd 

.iins<  If  less 

congruous 

.ilculciti   )     to 

inancia    diffi- 

Uilfes  vou."  is 

nil 

flceni 

a 
I    .en 


providing  for  the  upkeep  of  his  o 
church,  rectory,  school,  hall,  etc?    a 
only  over-emphasizing  the  adage,  " 
charity  begins  at  home,"  and  showii 
broad-minded  and  large-hearted  thai 
in  a  zealous  priest  of  God,  but  is  ad 
is    really    a    short-sighted    policy 
increase,  rather  than  diminish,  his 
culties.    "Give,  and  it  shall  be  givt  ,  „. 
one  of  the  first  principles  of  Gospel  pru  - 
his  preaching  it  to  his  people  by  ^     .  d  ai. 
will  undoubtedly  be  productive  ot  more  ..e. 
results,  even  from  a  material  standp*  h 
will  any  narrow  insistence  on  the  dicti... 
the  charity  that  begins  at  home— and  al!  Uk, 
ends  there. 

The  experience  of  all  those  priests  who  ujterest 
themselves  and  their  parishioners  in  these  socie- 
ties which   we   have   mentioned   may   safoly  be 
appealed  to  in  support  of  the  contention  that,  far 
from  affecting  unfavorably  purely  local  religious 
or  charitable  works,  affiliation  with  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  and  the  Association 
of  the  Holy  Childhood  stimulates  the  generosity  of 
tne  faithful  and  actually  increases  the  revenues 
for  home  needs.      As  a  Pennsylvania  cleric  has 
admirably  put  it  in  a  letter  to  a  missionary  maga- 
zine :    "That  our  parishes  would  never  suffer  from 
an  increased  zeal  in  the  broader  interests  of  the 
Universal  Church  is  a  consoling  paradox  which  it 
is  well  to  emphasize.    It  is  not  a  question  of  jeal- 
ously husbanding  resources;  it  is  rather  a  question 
of  arousing  in  the  hearts  of  our  people  the  unfath- 


16 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


omable  religious  spirit  which  is  too  often  allowed 
?o  lie  dormant-that  spirit  which  measures  its  gen- 
Iro  Uy  nTt  by  the  size  of  another's  contribution; 
but  by  the  unlimited  extent  of  the  need     It   s  a 
sDlendid  object  lesson  for  us  parish  P'  csts  that 
he  ecilesia  tic  who  was  most  closely  identified 
wUh  foreign  mission  work  in  England    was  U^e 
man  who  built  the  Westminster  Cathedral,  who 
Taved  the  day  for  religious  schools  in  Parliament, 
and  who  organized  the  admirable  system  of  child- 
re^iTe  work  that  will  continue  to  prove  its  excel 

lence  for  years  to  come." 

One  consideration  which  should  possess  not  a 
litUe  weiglit  in  determining  both  a  Pastor  and  his 
people  to  show  themselves  generous  in  aidmg  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  tne  Faith  is  that 
fl^ey  themselves,  as  constituent  members  of  the 
Srch  in  this  country   iiave  received  very  sub^ 

slanUal  benefits  from  that  °r8«7^,^^^"\  ^"*^°2 
to  its  directors  in   the   name  of   the   American 
hierarchy  assembled  at  Baltimore  ^-r  the  third 
national  Council  in  1884,  Cardinal  GiDbons  said : 
"If  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  planted  in  the  virgin 
soil  of  America  has  struck  deep  roots  and  grow 
nVo  a  gigantic  tree,  with  branches  stretching  from 
the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  the  coast  of 
he  Pacific,  it  is  mainly  to  the  assistance  rendered 
S  your  admirable  Society  that  we  are  indebted  for 
this  blessing."   That  this  tribute  is  not  mere  poetic 
l^vperboe  but  simple  prosaic  fact  is  clear  from 
Msfir  Freri's  tabulated  statement  of  the  Society  s 
recdpts   and   disbursements,   contributed   to   the 
S  c  Encyclopedia.    There  we  find  that,  up  to 


FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


17 


1910.  inc».'  . .  while  the  United  States  had  given 
to  the  Soc  .y  two  and  three-quarter  million  dol- 
lars, the  Society  had  given  to  missions  in  America 
ten  and  three-quarter  millions.  Now  that  this 
country  has  graduated  from  the  ranks  of  mission- 
ary lands  (although  seventeen  dioceses  in  the 
South  and  the  Far  West  still  receive  yearly  alloca- 
tions from  the  Society),  it  is  surely  fitting  that  our 
pnests  and  people  should  do  their  part  in  paying 
off  that  debt.  And  if  the  pastors  take  the  initia- 
tive. It  is  morally  certain  that  the  flock  will  readily 
lend  their  cooperation. 

It  need  hardly  be  stated  that,  apart  from  any 
affiliation  with  these  foreign  mission  societies,  a 
zealous  priest  who  is  big  enough  to  think  in  terms 
of  the  universal  Church  can  effectively  aid  the  mis- 
sions by  his  personal  contributions  to  particular 
projects  that  make  a  specific  appeal  to  his  sym- 
pathy, and  by  enlisting  the  active  interest  of  his 
wealthy  or  :^t  least  well-to-do  friends  for  the  same 
good  cr.u«.<.  J,,  ,qn,  moreover,  infuse  genuine 
w&rmth  aid  ciiiiies^ness  into  his  appeal  to  his 
people  ..  -nkr  the  collection  for  the  Missions  a 
notably  n^v..rou^  :  um,  not  an  insignificant 
pittance. 

Financu;  ass.  !f  ice,  however,  even  the  most 
liberal  and  bo..;iieous  assistance,  is  neither  the  sole 
need  of  the  Foreign  Missions  in  our  day  nor  the 
only  way  in  which  the  Church  in  America  can 
manifest  her  apostolic  spirit  in  their  regard  Lack 
of  money  undoubtedly  handicaps  the  activities  of 
the  missionaries  and  is  a  misfortune;  but  a  dearth 
of  missionaries  paralyzes  the  work  of  evangeliza- 


18 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tion  and  is  a  disaster.  Funds  for  the  workers  in 
the  foreign  field  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  an 
urgent  need;  additional  workers  in  that  field  may 
well  be  looked  upon  as  an  absolute  necessity. 
Thoroughgoing  zeal  on  the  part  of  a  parish  priest 
who  is  imbued  with  a  genuinely  apostolic  spirit 
can  speedily  amass  some  hundreds  of  dollars  for 
missionary  use ;  but  to  provide  a  priest  or  Brother 
or  Sister  who  will  go  to  the  field  afar  to  devote 
life's  energies  to  apostolic  work  is  an  achievement 
measurably  harder  and  notably  less  expeditious. 

Once  we  grant  the  necessity  of  an  end,  however, 
reasonable  trust  in  Divine  Providence  assures  us 
that  means  for  the  successful  accomplishment  of 
that  end  can  invariably  be  found  by  men  of  good 
will.  If  American  missionaries  are  needed  in  Asia, 
Africa  and  the  Southern  Seas,  as  they  undoubtedly 
are,  then  there  arc,  just  as  undoubtedly,  ways  and 
methods  by  which  American  boys  and  girls  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  can  be  inspired  with  love  for  such 
a  vocation  and  trained  for  the  work  which  it  neces- 
sarily entails.  The  first  step  was  taken  at  Techny, 
111.,  where  the  Fathers  of  the  Divine  Word,  in  1909, 
established  a  Mission  House  for  the  exclusive  train- 
ing of  American  boys  and  young  men  for  the  For- 
eign Missions, — although  of  course  individual 
members  of  other  religious  orders  and  congrega- 
tions in  this  country  have  been  going  to  the  foreign 
field  from  time  to  time  for  decades  past.  Cor- 
responding to  the  work  of  the  English  Mill  Hill 
Fathers  and  the  priests  of  the  French  "Missions 
Etrangerts,"  a  beginning  was  made,  in  1910,  at 
Maryknoll,  N.  Y.,  in  the  matter  of  providing  Ameri- 


FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


19 


.! 


can  secular  priests  for  the  Foreign  Missions.  The 
progress  of  both  Seminaries  is  a  cause  for  legit- 
imate pride  on  the  part  of  the  zealous  promoters 
of  these  excellent  works,  and  a  proof  that  no 
insuperable  difficulties  lie  in  the  way  of  America's 
doing  her  full  duty  with  respect  to  Christ's  com- 
mission, "Going,  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations." 
Even  a  partial  fulfilment  of  that  duty  will,  how- 
ever, necessitate  during  the  next  few  decades  the 
establishment  of  more  than  two  or  three  such  semi- 
naries as  Techny  and  Maryknoll  in  different  parts 
of  this  great  and  still  growing  country:  and  there 
is  no  parish  priest  in  the  land  so  overburdened 
with  work  or  so  straitened  in  resources  that  he 
may  not  render  effective  aid  both  in  furthering  the 
prosperity  of  the  institutions  of  Techny  and  Mary- 
knoll, and  in  fostering  vocations  that  will  justify 
the  founding  of  several  similar  institutions. 

That  vocations  for  the  Foreign  Missions  are  in 
this  country  at  present  sporadic,  exceptional,  few 
and  far  between,  will  scarcely  be  contested  by  any 
one  whose  interest  in  the  subject  has  led  him  to 
make  inquiries;  that  their  existence  in  fairly  large 
numbers  should  become  in  the  near  future  a  nor- 
mal outgrowth  of  the  religious  education  imparted 
to  our  young  people  is  a  consummation  not  only 
devoutly  to  be  wished,  but,  at  least  in  the  opinion 
of  the  present  writer,  entirely  feasible,  not  to  say 
comparatively  easy  to  bring  about.  To  speak  first 
of  the  sporadic  vocations  existing  here  and  there 
throughout  the  land,  and  the  pastor's  duty  in  con- 
nection therewith:  young  Catholics  whom  the 
grace  of  God  is  calling  to  a  life  of  consecration 


,•■ 


20 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


:  t^ 


I: 


and  self-sacrifice  have  a  quasi-right  to  learn  from 
their  parish  i>riests  that  at  Maryknoll,  at  Techny, 
and  in  various  religious  orders  and  congregations 
of  the  country,  opportunities  are  afforded  for  the 
developments  of  their  vocation,  for  a  training  spe- 
cifically designed  to  fit  them  for  apostolic  work 
in  foreign  fields.  Nor  will  it  argue  very  extraor- 
dinarj-^  zeal  on  the  part  of  a  pastor  if,  in  a  given 
case,  he  financially  assists  the  aspirant  to  such  a 
life  in  reaching  the  goal  of  his  pious  ambition.  A 
little  more  generous  employment,  by  the  average 
priest,  of  good  advice  and  material  aid,  of  the 
pious  word  and  the  helping  hand,  would  very  prob- 
ably, even  now,  multiply  fourfold  the  youthful 
Americans  making  ready  for  the  glorious  work  of 
spreading  Christ's  Gospel  in  heathen  lands. 

The  exigencies  of  the  time,  however,  call  for 
something  more  than  these  relatively  rare  and 
exceptional  and  scattered  vocations.  What  is 
imperatively  needed  is  a  measurably  numerous 
band  of  youthful  volunteers  issuing  from  Catholic 
schools  and  colleges  with  the  resolute  desire  to 
work  for  God  where  God  is  unknown.  How  can 
such  a  band,  constantly  increasing  as  the  years  go 
by,  be  brought  into  existence?  By  precisely  the 
same  means  as  have  proved  effective  in  other 
lands — in  Ireland,  France,  and  Belgium,  to  men- 
tion no  others.  The  supernatural  atmosphere  must 
be  imbibed  by  our  young  folk  more  habitually  and 
in  larger  draughts  than  is  the  case  at  present. 
They  must  be  taught  from  their  earliest  years  that 
whole-hearted  labor  in  the  Lord's  vineyard  wher- 
ever situated,  endurance  of  trials  and  sufferings 


I 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


21 


•  / 


i  i 


for  God's  sake,  holiness,  sanctity,  the  desire  of 
martyrdom  evtii,  are  not  abnormal  manifestations 
of  genuine  Catholic  life,  nor  mere  ideals  so  lofty 
as  to  be  unattainable  by  themselves.  They  must 
learn,  as  they  will  learn  if  properly  instructed,  to 
walk  by  faith  rather  than  by  sight,  to  discern  the 
action  of  Providence,  not  the  intervention  of  blind 
chance,  in  the  various  circumstances  of  their  own 
lives,  as  in  the  bigger  concerns  of  the  world  around 
them.  They  must  in  a  word  be  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  idea  that  the  things  of  eternity  are,  after 
all,  the  only  things  of  supreme  import  to  men  and 
women,  young  or  old. 

To  become  somewhat  more  specific:  vocations 
to  the  Foreign  Missions  will  abound  in  this  country 
if  our  Catholic  educators  and  our  parish  priests 
make  due  account  of  the  spirit  of  romance  and 
adventure  and  hei  o  worship  which  in  some  degree 
is  found  in  all  boys,  and  which  in  most  boys  exists 
in  a  notable  degree.  This  spirit  is  naturally  devel- 
oped and  fostered  by  the  literature  especially 
designed  for  the  young— tales  of  exciting  adven- 
ture, of  discovery  and  exploration,  of  martial 
glories  and  naval  perils,  of  treasure  islands  and 
pirates'  booty,  of  Western  cowboys  and  metropoli- 
tan detectives,  of  "moving  accidents  by  flood  and 
field,"  of  foreign  travel  and  life  in  the  open  and 
thrilling  risks  and  courted  dangers  and  the  whole 
long  catalogue  of  the  fiction-writer's  devices.  Now, 
there  is  nothing  surer  than  that  the  career  of  many 
an  American  youth  is  practically  determined  by 
just  such  literature,  or  rather  by  the  spirit  of 
romance  to  which  it  caters.    Of  the  thousands  of 


22 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I 


young  men  under  thirty  who  flocked  to  the  colors 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish-American  war,  or 
on  our  entrance  into  the  present  world-conflict, 
how  many  were  actuated  by  patriotism  pure  and 
simple,  and  how  many  by  the  love  of  adventure  so 
characteristic  of  normal  boyhood  and  youth! 

Is  there  any  impossibility,  or  even  any  inherent 
difficulty,  involved  in  supernaturalizing  this  adven- 
turous spirit  in  our  Catholic  young  people?  Sup- 
pose that  at  home  and  in  school  they  are  copiously 
supplied  with  the  true  stories  of  the  heroes  of  our 
Faith,  with  the  intensely  interesting  narratives  of 
real  adventures  experienced  by  our  foregin  mis- 
sionaries, with  the  thrilling  accounts  of  dangers 
confronted  and  death  defied  by  the  martyrs,  not 
of  the  historical  primitive  Church,  but  of  our  own 
day — will  not  the  baleful  influence  of  hedonism, 
or  belief  in  the  supreme  importance  of  securing  a 
"good  time"  be  eflfectively  counteracted,  and  God's 
grace  find  a  congenial  soil  in  which  to  sow  the 
seeds  of  an  apostolic  vocation?  We  have  to-day 
"Livos  of  the  Saints"  that  make  Ihoroughly  good, 
not  merely  goody-goody,  reading  for  young  folks — 
numbers  of  them  'ay  he  found  in  the  catalogue  of 
the  London  Ca  Truth  Socii*ty,  and  an  increas- 

ing stock  of  bio^  .  ;  lies  of  neai  aints  as  charming 
as  they  are  edifying.  We  have,  too,  not  only  such 
specific  Foreign  Missions  periodicals  as  The  Illus- 
trated Catholic  Missions,  The  Good  Work,  The 
Field  Afar,  and  The  Little  Missionary,  but  a  Mis- 
sions department  of  a  colunm  or  two  in  most  of 
our  Catholic  weeklies.  And,  in  the  matter  of  won- 
derful happenings  and  exciting  events  and  terrify- 


l,W.A>IJri,.xl 


^S^IE?!'  J J.-ir« 


I 


FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


23 


ing  incidents  and  miraculous  escapes,  these  "really 
truly"  stories  told  by  our  missionaries  immeasur- 
ably surpass  the  imaginative  narratives  of  the  fic- 
tionists.  Now,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
concerted  action  on  the  part  of  priests  and  parents 
and  teachers  would  create  in  the  minds  of  our  boys 
and  girls  genuine  interest  in  such  veritably  Cath- 
olic literature,  an  interest  which,  just  as  "the  appe- 
tite increases  with  eating,"  would  grow  with  their 
growth  and  beneficently  affect  their  whole  future 
careers,  even  if  it  did  not,  as  in  many  a  case  it 
presumably  would,  enkindle  a  noble  desire  for  a 
life  cf  sacrifice  on  the  foreign  mission. 

It  goes  without  saying,  of  course,  that  the  fore- 
going paragraph  will  impress  not  a  few  readers  as 
a  piece  of  optimistic  idealism,  and  the  writer  is 
quite  prepared  indeed  to  hear  it  characterized  by 
ultra-practical  clerics  in  some  such  terms  as  "pure 
poppycock  and  pietistic  piffle."  He  maintains  nev- 
ertheless that  such  a  formation  of  the  rising  gen- 
eration of  Catholics  is  neither  impracticable  nor 
particularly  difTicult.  One  reason  for  this  convic- 
tion is  a  consideration  to  which  the  average  priest 
has  perhaps  not  given  all  the  attention  or  attrib- 
uted all  the  importance  which  it  ^ery  certainly 
merits:  the  effect  of  frequent  and  daily  Com- 
munion on  the  children  and  adolescents  of  our  day. 
Whether  or  not  Pius  X.  foresaw  the  European  War 
and  its  disastrous  effects  on  the  Foreign  Missions, 
his  action  in  confirming  the  decree  Sacra  Triden- 
tina  Synodus,  and  in  subsequently  lowering  the 
age  at  which  children  may  be  admitted  to  the  Holy 
Table,  assuredly  facilitated  the  securing  of  Ameri- 


24 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


can  recruits  to  the  ranks  of  the  Church's  apostolic 
laborers  in  lands  beyond  the  ocean.  To  doubt  that 
a  deeper  spirituality  and  a  more  ardent  love  of 
self-sacrifice  will  characterize  a  youthful  genera- 
tion that  has  from  childhood  partaken  daily  of 
the  Bread  of  Life  would  be  constructively  to  ques- 
tion the  beneficent  action  of  the  Eucharist  on  the 
development  of  the  interior  life  or  what  we  com- 
monly call  growth  in  holiness.  Given  such  spir- 
ituality, is  it  extravagant  to  assert  that  many  a 
youth  will  be  irresistibly  drawn  to  a  career  which, 
just  because  of  its  acknowledged  hardships  and 
privations,  appeals  all  the  more  strongly  to  his 
spirit  of  sacrifice?  Let  the  clerical  reader  of  this 
page  hark  back  to  his  own  boyhood,  recall  his  own 
spirit  (fostered  by  Communion  only  once  a  week 
or  once  a  fortnight),  and  give  his  own  answer  to 
the  question. 

There  is  yet  another  consideration  which  should 
not  be  lost  sight  of  in  any  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject: efforts  to  discover  and  foster  vocations  to  the 
Foreign  Missions  will  almost  inevitably  increase 
the  number  of  vocations  to  the  priesthood  for  the 
home  field;  and  that  such  vocations  are  needed  is 
clear  from  the  statements  of  numerous  prelates, 
especially  in  the  Western  States.  The  congruous 
episcopal  attitude  toward  the  question  is  well 
expressed  in  the  assurance  given  by  Archbishop 
Mundelein  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Divine  Word,  at 
St.  Mary's  Mission  House,  Techny:  "How  glad  I 
am  that  your  school  and  novitiate  are  established 
in  my  diocese!  True.  I  am  in  urgent  need  of  men 
to  carry  on  the  work  at  home,  but  I  will  never  put 


!&H9 


jBPr 


IN  :.\yi'U,^i. : 


I 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


25 


an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  your  obtaining  vacations 
in  this  diocese,  because  I  know  that  the  young  mis- 
sionaries who  will  go  forth  from  your  institution 
to  devote  themseNes  to  the  salvation  of  the  poor 
heathen  in  lar-away  countries  will  call  down 
Heaven's  especial  blessing  on  our  work  at  home." 
What  His  Grace  of  Chicago  says  of  his  diocese  may 
be  said  with  fully  as  much  propriety  of  any  parish 
whose  pastor  interests  himself  and  his  people  in 
the  Foreign  Missions :  God's  blessing  will  descend 
upon  it,  superabundantly  rewarding  even  in  this 
life  both  pastor  and  flock. 


I 


^^^5^f^SC53B 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 

Who  grasps  the  child  grasps  the  future.— FronW*  Thompson. 

They  that  instruct  many  to  justice  shall  shine  as  stars  to  all 
eternity. — Darnel:  xii,  S. 

Education  does  not  mean  teaching  people  to  know  what  they 
do  not  know,  it  means  teaching  them  to  bthhve  as  they  do  not 
behave. — Buskxn. 

'T^O  discourse  to  the  average  American  priest  on 
■■-     the  importance  of  Christian  education  would 
he  an  obvious  instance  of  what  up-to-date  humor- 
ists are  wont  to  call  "the  zero  in  occupations,"  a 
twentieth-century  rendering  of  an  idea  that  used 
to  be  phrased  "carrying  coals  to  Newcastle."   Long 
before  his  ordination  he  heard  and  read  so  much 
about  the  fundamental  importance  of  the  subject, 
and  since  that  period  has  supplemented  his  pre- 
vious knowledge  by  so  much  of  his  own  thought 
and  experience,  that  into  the  very  warp  and  woof 
of  his  mentality  there  has  entered  this  conviction: 
good,  true  education,  the  only  form  worthy  of  the 
name,  is  that  which  fits  one  to  lead  a  good,  moral. 
Christian  life  on  earth,  and  thus  prepare  for  a 
happy  eternity.    The  purpose  of  the  present  essay 
is  not,  therefore,  to  rehash  age-old  principles,  or 
reiterate  such  counsels  about  the  training  of  chil- 
dren   as   both    priests    and   bishops    pe.iodically 
proffer  to  their  people;  but  rather  to  suggest  some 
practical    considerations    on    the    concrete    work 
which  it  is  the  priest's  duty,  and  no  doubt  his 
pleasure  as  well,  to  perform  in  connection  with  the 
school. 

26 


bS^SSSL-. '.'i/ar  .^\w' 


THE  PRIEST  AND   THE   SCHOOL 


27 


In  so  far  as  their  educational  activities  are 
concerned,  American  priests  would  appear  to  fall 
naturally  into  three  categories:  those  (the  hap- 
piest) who  have  parish  schools  at  which  all  their 
children  are  attendants;  those  who  have  their  own 
schools,  but  a  portion  of  whose  young  people 
attend  the  public  schools;  and,  finally,  those  who 
for  one  reason  or  another  have  not  yet  been  able 
to  establish  schools  of  their  own.  That  this  last 
class  is  more  numerous  than  is  generally  supposed 
is  a  fact  made  painfully  evident  by  the  statistics 
incidentally  given  in  our  ofllcial  Catholic  Directory. 
An  effective  check  indeed  to  the  spread-eagleism 
or  vaingloriousness  in  which  some  of  us  occasion- 
ally indulge  when  dilating  upon  "our  magnificent 
system  of  parish  schools"  is  the  statement  made  by 
our  most  authoritative  educationists  and  most  rep- 
utable journals,  that  at  least  half  the  Catholic 
children  of  this  country  are  non-attendants  at 
parish  schools.  The  oft-quoted  dictum  of  the  late 
Archbishop  Spalding,  that  "tl:  Greatest  religious 
fact  in  the  United  States  to-day  is  ihe  Catholic 
school  system,  maintained  without  any  aid  by  the 
people  who  love  it,"  is  perhaps  true  enough;  but 
it  does  not  mean  that  either  intensively,  or  espe- 
cially extensively,  the  system  has  attained  so 
approximatclv  ideal  a  development  that  we  are 
justified  in  resting  content  in  smug  complacency 
with  the  results  already  achieved.  It  is  gratifying, 
no  doubt,  to  read  Dr.  Turner's  statement  in  the 
Catholic  Encyclopedia,  that  the  system  "comprises 
over  20,000  teachers,  over  1,000,000  pupils,  repre- 
sents $100,000,000  worth  of  property,  and  costs  over 


28 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


!    ! 


f  15,000,000  annually";  but  any  undue  elation  over 
these  facts  may  well  be  qualified  by  this  other 
statement,  occurring  in  a  paper  read  at  a  meeting 
of  he  Catholic  Educational  Association  held  a  few 
years  ago  in  St.  Paul:  "It  seems  that  over  half 
our  Catholic  children,  perhaps  fifty-five  percent, 
are  outside  the  Catholic  schools."  Later  staUsUcs 
than  Dr.  Turner's  give  the  number  attending  the 
parish  schools  as  a  million  and  a  half;  but  they 
give  the  same  number  for  Catholic  children  who 
lack  the  spiritually  salubrious  atmosphere  and  the 
beneficent  formative  influences  of  the  genuinely 
Catholic  school. 

To  recognize  such  facts  as  these  is  in  no  way 
to  disparage  the  really  admirable  results  that  have 
so  far  attended  the  laudable  eff-orts  to  build  up  our 
school  system;  it  is  merely  a  reminder  that  very 
much  remains  to  be  done— and  most  of  it  by  indi- 
vidual priests— before  our  educational  conditions 
reach  that  degree  of  excellence  which  will  warrant 
unmixed  satisfaction  therewith,  and  which  they 
must  reach  if  the  Church's  work  in  this  country  is 
to  be  Carrie^  on  with  the  fullest  possible  efficiency. 
The  splendiu  record  made  by  thousands  of  par- 
ishes in  the  matter  of  building  and  equipping  suit- 
able schools  shoii'^   not  lead   us   to  ignore  the 
existence  of  thousands  of  other  parishes  in  which 
there  are  not  only  no  Catholic  schools  but  no 
apparent  prospects  that  the  want  will  soon  be  sup- 
plied.   A  survey  of  the  whole  country  need  not 
perhaps  engender  any  pessimistic  thoughts  regard- 
ing the  outlook  for  our  growing  system;  but  any 
sacerdotal  optimism  concerning  tha*  outlook  will 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL  29 


best  be  justified  by  each  priest's  doing  his  own 
allotted  share  of  the  work  as  effectively  as  he 
posrtibly  can. 

To  come  to  the  nature  of  that  work,  and  (o 
speak  first  of  the  pastor  who  belongs  to  what  we 
have  called  the  happiest  of  the  three  categories 
into  which,  for  the  purposes  of  this  essay,  all 
American  priests  may  be  divided,  -the  one  whose 
parish  school  is  attended  by  all  his  children.  It 
goes  without  saying,  of  course,  that  such  a  pastor 
here  and  there  may  object  to  our  characterization 
of  his  lot,  may  deem  that  lot  anything  but  an  envia- 
ble one.  We  can  readily  fancy  hearing  him  (as  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  remember  hearing  him) 
exclaim:  "Happy!  My  dear  fellow,  if  you  had 
the  job  of  looking  after  my  school  for  six  months, 
and  knew  from  experience  ever  so  little  about  the 
endless  worry  connected  with  finances,  with  teach- 
ers and  pupils  and  parents,  with  the  upkeep  of  the 
building  and  its  furniture,  etc.,  you'd  be  apt  to  call 
yourself,  not  happy,  but  miserable."  That,  how- 
ever, is  most  probably  merely  the  expression  of  a 
passing  mood.  At  heart  he  is,  and  has  every  right 
to  be,  thoroughly  well  satisfied  that  his  parish 
church  has  its  normal  complement,  the  parish 
school;  and  his  satisfaction  is  doubtless  all  the 
sweeter  if  the  establishment  of  the  school  has 
entailed  some  such  personal  sacrifice  as  the  giving 
up  of  his  commodious  rectory  to  the  Sisters  for 
their  residence,  while  he  temporarily  betakes  him- 
self to  less  comfortable  quarters.  And  if  he  is,  as 
we  suppose  him,  fortunate  enough  to  know  that 
none  of  his  young  people  are  attending  the  public 


30 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


1  • 


school  but  arc  all  daily  under  his  hand  and  eye, 
he  can  hardly  compare  his  lot  with  that  of  his 
brother  priest  not  all  of  whose  children  frequent 
his  own  class-rooms,  still  less  with  that  of  the 
school-less  pastor  none  of  whose  little  ones  enjoy 
Catholic  training,  without  thanking  God  heartily 
for  very  evident  mercies. 

That  these  mercies  are  tempered  with  not  a  few 
trials  and  annoyances  we  have  no  intention  of 
denying.    A  parish  schoiil,  oven  be  it  ever  so  well 
organized,  is  a  charge,  and  no  light  one,  on  any 
father  of  souls.    It  involves  care  and  thought  and 
the  expenditure  of  considerable  time,  even  when 
the  Onancial  conditions  of  the  parish  give  no  cause 
(as  they  frequently  give  all  too  much  cause)  for 
arxiety  and  worry.  Just  how  much  of  his  time  n 
pastor  should  give  to  his  school  is  a  question  that 
admits  of  a  good  deal  of  permissible,  if  not  always 
profitable,  discussion.    In  a  free  countr>'  and  about 
debatable  matters,  ever>-  min  is  of  course  entitled 
to  his  own  opinion;   and   as   to   this  particular 
matter  the  present  writer  has  in  his  time  heard 
and  read  opinions  diametrically  opposed  to  each 
other,  as  far  apart  as  light  from  darkness  or  North 
from  South.    Some  pastors  go  so  far  as  to  main- 
tain that  the  priest  should  steer  clear  of  his  school 
altogether,  consigning  all  that  pertains  to  its  activ- 
ities to  the  Brothers,  Sisters,  or  lay  teachers  who 
have  been  engaged  to  conduct  it;  while  at  the 
other  extreme,  are  disputants  fully  as  dogmatic 
in  asserting  that  the  pastor  should  not  only  be 
familiar  with  all  the  details  of  his  school's  active 
life,  but  should  himself  be  the  prime  mover  in 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 


31 


directing  those  detuils.  It  is  a  case  in  which  Ovid's 
medio  tutissimus  ibis  seems  clearly  applicable. 
The  golden  mean  lies  between  absolute  non-inter- 
ference and  perferN'id  oniciousness.  As  against 
the  position  of  those  who  hold  that  sole  and  exclu- 
sive charge  should  be  left  to  tJie  Brothers  or  Sis- 
ters, we  have  the  directions  of  the  third  Plenary 
Council  of  Baltimore  to  the  effect  that  the  pastor 
shall  not  only  organize  a  parish  school,  but  shall 
familiarize  himself  with  the  principles  and  meth- 
ods of  education  in  order  properly  to  discharge 
his  duties  in  connection  therewith.  And  an  ade- 
quate reply  to  those  who  would  have  the  pastor 
become  the  school's  be-all  and  do-all  would  s(  in 
to  be  that  his  other  pastoral  duties  do  not  p  null 
such  engrossing  of  his  time. 

Few  will  be  inclined  to  oppose  the  contention 
that  the  school  which  is  being  conducted  by  lay 
teachers  needs,  and  should  get,  more  of  the  pas- 
tor's supervision  and  co-operation  than  the  one 
whose  teachers  are  religious,  Brothers  or  Sisters. 
While  these  latter  are  not  always  perhaps  so  thor- 
oughly competent  as  is  desirable  in  the  whole 
range  of  scholastic  and  pedagogical  requirements, 
the  presumption  is  decidedly  in  their  favor;  and 
as  regards  the  really  essential  point,  the  dis- 
tinctive attribute  that  differentiates  and  sets  off  the 
parish  from  the  public  school  —  the  Catholic 
atmosphere— the  Brothers  and  Sisters  are  clearly 
the  ideal  teachers.  If  there  be  any  justification 
for  the  pastor  who  visits  his  school  rarely  if  at  all, 
it  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  his 
children     are     under     the     control     of     devoted 


32 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


religious.     Yet  the  justification  is  not  adequate. 
The  utmost  devotedness  and  competency  on  the 
part  of  his  teachers  cannot  relieve  him  of  his 
responsibility  as  spiritual  father  of  the  little  ones 
of  his  flock.    In  the  matter  of  religious  instruction 
especially,   the   specific   catechism   lessons,   it   is 
advisable,  if  not  imperative,  for  him  to  take  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  matter — to  do  some  of  the 
teaching  himself.     At  least  once  a  week,  if  not 
more  frequently,  he  should  supplement  the  teach- 
ers'  explanations    and    the   usual    question    and 
answer  routine  by  a  familiar  exposition  of  the  doc- 
trine or  doctrines  that  are  being  studied.    Such 
personal  instruction  is  a  fortiori  necessary  if  his 
school  is  conducted  by  lay  teachers.    In  this  latter 
case,  indeed,  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  fulfilling 
his  whole  duty  to  his  children  unless  he  visits  the 
school  several  times  a  week,  if  not  daily,  even 
should  his  visit  mean  simply  a  few  brief  moments 
spent  in  each  of  the  class-rooms. 

As  for  the  pastor's  personal  intervention  in 
purely  pedagogical  matters  concerning  the  secular 
branches,  much  will  depend  of  course  on  his  own 
equipment  in  pedagogical  knowledge  and  his  com- 
petency to  select  the  best  of  the  different  methods 
advocated  by  various  educationists.  If,  as  is  prob- 
ably the  case  with  the  average  pastor,  his  knowl- 
edge of  pedagogy  is  somewhat  superficial  rather 
than  really  profound,  it  will  be  the  part  of  pru- 
dence for  him  to  adopt  a  suggestive  instead  of  an 
authoritative  attitude  in  discussing  the  processes 
by  which  his  teachers  seek  to  achieve  the  desired 
resui     *n  directing  "the  young  idea  how  to  shoot." 


THE  PRIEST  AND   THE  SCHOOL 


33 


Notwithstanding  the  so-called  progressiveness  of 
this  country  in  most  matters,  and  not  least  in 
matters  educational,  a  judicious  parish  priest  may 
well  advise  conservative  rather  than  strictly  up-to- 
date  pedagogical  methods.  Fashions  in  teaching 
vary  almost  as  much  and  as  often  as  fashions  in 
dress;  and  for  both  kinds  Pope's  rule  is  still  a  good 
one: 

Fie  not  the  fii-st  by  whom  tlio  new  is  tried, 
Nor  yet  the  last  to  lay  the  old  aside. 

As  a  case  in  point,  it  is  altogether  doubtful  that 
the  oldtime  method  of  teaching  orthography,  by 
means  of  the  spelling-book  and  "dictation," 'has 
been  improved  upon  by  any  of  the  substitute  or 
makeshift  processes  of  recent  years.  Tiu  "look" 
of  an  English  word  as  written  or  printed,  ,,ot  the 
sound  of  it  as  uttered  by  the  voice,  is  what  the  boy 
or  girl  needs  to  retain  in  the  memory. 

Just  here  the  writer  may  be  permitted  to  pay  a 
well-deserved  tribute  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
instruction  given  in  the  average  American  parish 
school.  It  is  part  of  my  daily  work  to  examine  a 
considerable  number  of  newspapers,  religious  and 
secular,  published  throughout  the  United  States; 
and  if  there  is  one  fact  about  education  that  is 
being  continually  forced  upon  my  attention  by  one 
and  all  of  these  papers,  it  is  that  our  Catholic 
schools,  primary  and  secondary,  are  the  most  thor- 
ough in  their  methods,  and  the  most  efficient  in 
securing  worth-while  concrete  results,  of  all  the 
educational  institutions  in  the  country.  Hardly  a 
week  goes  by  in  which  I  do  not  read  of  prize  con- 


141 


34 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


11 


tests  between  the  pupils  of  public  and  parochial 
schools,   and   in   a  large  majority   of  cases   the 
prizes  go  to  our  own  boys  and  girls.    Professional 
and  business  men  in  all  our  large  cities  periodically 
protest  in  the  secular  press  against  the  woeful 
incompetency  in  orthography  and  arithmetic  and 
elementary  composition  displayed  by  the  grad- 
uates of  the  public  high  schools,  and  inquire  why 
it  is  that  the  pupils  of  the  Catholic  Brothers  and 
Sisters  do  so  much  better  work.    The  outstanding 
reason  would  seem   io  be  that  in  many  public 
schools  the  teachers  devote  so  much  time  to  fads 
and  "frills"  and  filigree  that  the  necessary  drilling 
in  the  fundamentals — what  used  to  be  known  as 
"the  three  R's" — cannot  be  given,  the  result  being 
that  the  pupils  have  a  mere  smattering  of  knowl- 
edge about  many  things  more  or  less  useful  or 
ornamental,  without  a  mastery  of  even  the  ele- 
ments of  the  simplest  branches.     Our  religious 
teachers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  too  much  com- 
mon sense  to  be  led  astray  by  the  grotesque  educa- 
tional fashions  of  the  hour;  they  teach  the  essen- 
tials and  teach  them  thoroughly. 

As  a  rule,  accordingly,  the  pastor  need  not  per- 
haps display  notable  activity  in  the  regulation  of 
purely  pedagogical  matters  when  he  has  religious 
for  teachers,  and  such  cooperation  as  he  does 
proffer  them  may  best  be  given  indirectly  and  by 
way  of  suggestion.  Thero  are  many  other  points, 
however,  as  to  which  his  action  may  and  should  be 
both  direct  and  energetic.  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
his  business  to  see  that  the  school  building  itself 
and  all  its  furniture  and  appurtenances  are  such 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE   SCHOOL 


35 


as,  on  the  score  of  safety,  cleanliness,  comfort,  and 
healthfulncss,  measure  fully  up  to  the  standard  set 
by  the  public  schools  of  his  neighborhood.  In  the 
second  place,  it  is  his  duty,  as  it  is  to  his  advan- 
tage, to  secure  a  sufficient  number  of  teachers,  and 
thus  avoid  the  all  too  common  and  ofttimes  inex- 
cusable mistake  of  overcrowded  classes.  It  is  a 
glaring  instance  of  false  economy  for  a  pastor  to 
consign  to  one  Sister  a  number  of  children  whose 
effective  training  demands  the  attentive  service  of 
two  Sisters,  or  even  three.  In  this  connection,  it 
is  pertinent  to  remind  the  pastor  that  his  Sisters 
have  been  engaged  to  teach,  not  to  act  as  sacris- 
tans, musicians,  sodality  leaders,  janitors,  etc. 
Five  and  a  half  or  six  hours  spent  in  the  class- 
room, with  the  additional  time  devoted  to  the  cor- 
rection of  written  "exercises,"  constitute  a  good 
day's  work  for  any  woman,  especially  for  one  whu 
has  to  supplement  that  work  by  a  number  of  spir- 
itual exercises  and  house-duties;  and  to  ask,  or 
even  allow,  her  to  do  more  is  almost  certainly  to 
impair  her  efficiency  as  a  teacher  and  thus  in  some 
measure  defeat  the  very  purpose  for  which  she  has 
been  engaged. 

Some  religious  communities  of  which  the  writer 
has  knowledge  h.  ve  solved  the  Sister-sacristan 
problem  by  simply  forbidding  their  teaching 
Sisters  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  sacristy; 
and  we  believe  their  decision  a  wise  one.  Others 
whom  we  know  permit  their  teachers  to  fill  the 
office  of  sacristan,  but  it  is  under  protest,  energetic 
even  if  silent.  What  seems  to  be  a  reasonable  plan 
in  the  matter  is  this:  most  of  our  teaching  com- 


36 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


munities  have  lay  Sisters  as  well  as  teaching  ones; 
and  if  a  pastor  is  very  anxious  to  have  his  sacristy 
looked  after  by  a  Sister,  let  him  engage  a  special 
lay  Sister  for  that  purpose.    In  all  probability  her 
services  could  be  secured  for  less  than  a  teacher's 
salary  because  of  her  availability  for  much  of  the 
domestic  work  in  the  Sisters'  home.    The  employ- 
ment of  lay  Sisters  will  not,  however,  solve  the 
problem  of  looking  after  sodalities,  preparing  the 
children  for  the  reception  of  the  sacraments,  giving 
religious   instruction    to    Catholic    children   who 
attend  the  public  schools,  or  conducting  evening 
schools   for   working   children— some   or    all    of 
which  services  not  a  few  short-sighted  and  incon- 
siderate pastors  expect  to  be  performed  by  their 
school  Sisters.    Now,  even  if  the  regular  work  of 
the  teachers  were  not  sufficient  to  exhaust  all  their 
available  energy,  it  would  still,  we  think,  be  inex- 
pedient to  turn  over  to  them  either  the  conduct  of 
the  sodality  or  the  religious  instruction  that  serves 
as  an  immediate  preparation  for  the  reception  of 
the  sacraments.    These  are  duties  incidental  to  the 
pastoral  charge,  and  cannot  well  be  delegated  to 
others  than  curates  or  assistants.    As  for  supple- 
mentary' instruction  or  classes  outside  of  the        j- 
lar  school  hours,  if  the  pastor  and  his  assistants 
are  too  busy  to  attend  to  them,  the  sensible  alter- 
native is  to  engage  extra  foachers  for  the  purpose, 
and  not  impose  such  surplus  labor  on  women  who 
are  already  burdened  with  a  full  sufficiency  -.f 
exhausting  work. 

Anything  like  a  due  appreciation  of  that  work 
can  scarcely  fail  to  lead  a  gentlemanly  pastor  to 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE   SCHOOL 


37 


be  kindly  and  obliging  to  his  Sisters  in  all  his  deal- 
ings with  them.  His  arranging  the  hour  for  the 
children's  Mass,  and  for  hearing  the  Sisters'  con- 
fessions, or  giving  them  Communion,  will  take 
their  greater  convenience  into  consideration;  and 
in  deference  to  their  religious  regularity  he  will 
make  it  a  point  to  be  as  punctual  at  such  functions 
as  would  be  the  most  exact  of  business  men. 
Fifteen  minutes  before  or  after  the  appointed  time 
may  easily  appear  a  smali  natter  to  him;  but  it 
can  readily  disarrange  a  whole  series  of  exercises 
in  a  religious  house.  Friendly  visits  to  the  Sisters 
in  their  recreation  room,  once  a  week  or  oftener, 
will  not  unduly  tax  a  pastor's  leisure,  but  will  do 
much  to  encourage  his  teachers  and  promote  gen- 
eral good-will  and  harmony.  If  the  present  writer 
may  be  permitted  to  suggest  one  topic  that  may 
frequently  be  discussed  during  such  visits,  it  is 
the  advisability,  or  rather  the  imperative  neces- 
sity, of  the  Sisters'  taking  due  care  of  their  bodily 
health,  and  their  consequent  duty  to  devote  some 
time  daily  to  physical  exercise  in  the  open  air.  In 
serious  or  in  jocular  vein,  or  perhaps  better  in  the 
half-fun-whole-earnest  style,  the  pastor  may  well 
impress  upon  his  teachers  their  obligation  to  give 
his  children  the  best  that  is  in  them,  the  fullest 
efficiency  of  which  they  are  capable,  an  efficiency 
clearly  impossible  unless  they  offset  the  dullness, 
weariness,  and  lassitude  consequent  on  confine- 
ment in  the  class-room  by  oxygenating  their  blood, 
energizing  their  lungs,  and  invigorating  their 
whole  physical  being  in  the  simple,  natural  way  of 
taking  every  day  an  hour  or  two  of  outdoor  exer- 
cise, even  if  it  be  merely  walking. 


'ii 


38 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


As  for  the  pastor  who  belongs  to  our  second 
category  of  American  priests,  those  who  have  their 
own  schools  although  all  their  children  do  not 
attend  them,  some  of  his  duties  are  identical  with 
those  of  the  first  class,  and  some  others  coincide 
with  those  of  the  third  class;  but  there  is  one  duty 
which  is  peculiarly  his  own.    It  is  to  endeavor  by 
every  means  in  his  power  to  induce  all  his  parish- 
ioners to  send  their  children  to  the  Catholic  school. 
By  explaining  to  his  people  the  Church's  idea  of 
true  education ;  by  enlarging  on  the  very  real  dan- 
gers to  which  the  genuine  Catholicity  of  their  sons 
and   daughters  is   exposed   in    the   non-rnligious 
atmosphere  of  the  public  school;  and  by  dwelling 
on  the  explicit  legislation  of  the  Third  Plenary 
Council   at   Baltimore,    that   a   parochial   school 
should  be  established  in  every  parish  within  two 
years  of  the  promulgation  of  the  decree  except 
where  the  bishop  for  grave  reasons  grants  a  delay 
— ^by  such  means  as  these  he  may  hope  eventually 
to  withdraw  from  the  public  school  those  of  his 
young  people  whom  their  misguided  parents  have 
sent  there.    One  of  his  strongest  arguments,  it  is 
needless  to  point  out,  will  be  his  statemen*  -as  a 
rule  an  unchallengeable  one— that  his  own  school 
effects  better  results,  even  as  regards  the  secular 
branches,  than  does  its  public  competitor.    In  all 
that  relates  to  his  supervision  of  the  school  and  his 
relatione  with  its  teachers,  our  pastor  of  the  second 
category  is  on  all-fours  with  the  priest  of  the  first, 
of  whom  we  have  already  treated.      And  with 
regard  to  the  religious  instruction  to  be  given  to 
those  of  his  children  who  are  pupils  of  the  public 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE   SCHOOL 


39 


school,  his  case  is  similar  to  that  of  the  school-less 
priest  of  the  third  category,  of  whom  we  have  now 
to  speak. 

The  pastor  who  has  no  parish  school  is  very 
sincerely  to  be  pitied,  and  the  less  he  recognizes 
himself  as  a  fit  object  for  that  sentiment,  the 
deeper  the  pity  of  which  he  is  deserving.  The 
overwhelming  majority  of  such  pastors  are  no 
doubt  guiltless  in  the  matter.  With  the  best  pos- 
sible will  and  the  most  energetic  exertions  they 
have  been  unable  as  yet  to  put  their  parish  on  the 
religious  footing  which  genuinely  Catholic  life 
calls  for  and  which  the  Baltimore  Council  has 
declared  to  be  the  norm  or  standard.  They  recog- 
nize that  the  lack  of  facilities  for  the  distinctively 
Catholic  training  of  their  young  people  is  a  serious 
handicap  to  the  efficiency  of  their  ministry,  and 
they  pray  as  well  as  work  for  the  day  when  the 
handicap  will  be  removed.  If  there  are,  here  and 
there  throughout  the  country,  occasional  pastors 
whose  lack  of  parochial  schools  is  due  principally 
to  their  own  want  of  initiative  and  zeal  and  true 
priestly  energj%  they  can  scarcely  blind  themselves 
to  the  fact  that  their  indolence  or  pusillanimity  is 
reprehensible,  and  in  no  slight  degree,  since  it  is 
clearly  preventing  that  '  tension  of  God's  work 
the  promotion  of  which  is  their  bounden  duty. 
Such  exceptional  priests  need  to  be  reminded  that 
the  true  order,  both  as  to  date  of  'erection  and  as 
to  intrinsic  importance,  of  the  buildings  in  a  given 
parish  is,  not  "rectory,  church,  and  school,"  but 
"church,  school,  and  rectory." 

Whether  or  not,  however,  the  non-existence  of 


iB 


li  I 


40 


SACERDOTAT  SAFEGUARDS 


a  pansh  school  be  the  pastor's  fault,  or  only  his 
misfortune,  the  concrete  results  with  regard  to  his 
children  are  the  same:  they  are  deprived  of  advan- 
tages to  which  as  members  of  the  Church  of  God 
they  have  a  quasi-right  and  which  it  is  difficult  to 
supply  by  any  other  system  than  daily  attendance 
in  Cathohc  class-rooms.    And  yet,  supplied  in  some 
measure  they  must  be,  if  the  young  people  are  to 
be  kept  within  Christ's  fold  and  not  be  known  a 
few  years  hence  as  "ought-to-be  Catholics."    The 
task  of  so  forming  them  that  their  religion  will 
ever  remain  a  vital  force  in  their  lives  is  one  that 
is  conjointly  incumbent  on  parents  and  pastors; 
and  it  is  the  obvious  duty  of  these  latter  to  see  that 
both  responsible  parties  m     fully  impressed  with 
the  rigorous  nature  of  their  obligations.    If  there 
is  one  priest  who  more  than  another  has  excellent 
reason  for  frequently  addressing  his  people  on  the 
duties  of  parents  to  their  children,  and  who  may 
well  take  to  himself  in  connection  with  that  sub- 
ject St.  Paul's  advice  to  Timothy,  "Preach  the 
word :  be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season :  reprove, 
entreat,  rebuke  in  all  patience  and  doctrine,"  it  is 
surely  the  pastor  who  sees  the  boys  and  girls  of 
his  parish  subjected  day  after  day  and  month  after 
month  to  the  certainly  non-religious,  and  all  too 
possibly  contaminating,  atmosphere  of  a  public 
school. 

Apart  from  his  indirect  care  of  these  children 
through  his  instructions  to  their  fathers  and 
mothers,  it  is  '  uestionably  the  pastor's  duty 
directly  to  inter  e.:?  in  Lhe  matter  of  their  religious 
training,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  seeing  that  they 


rT,*-:i«r**rM 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 


41 


receive  a  solid  grounding  in  religious  knowledge, 
that  they  know  their  catechism.  Just  what  meas- 
ures he  should  take  to  bring  about  this  result  will 
depend  on  a  variety  of  circumstances — on  his  liv- 
ing, for  instance,  in  a  city,  a  lar^jC  town,  a  village, 
or  in  a  rural  district;  but  it  may  be  asserted  with- 
out much  fear  of  denial  by  the  most  experienced 
clerics  that  the  weekly  Sunday  School  is  of  itself 
an  inadequate  measure,  especially  if  the  teachers 
in  that  school  are  lay  persons  instead  of  the  pastor 
himself  or  his  assistant.  Just  as  the  parents  can- 
not shift  to  the  pastor  the  responsibility  of  bringing 
up  their  children  in  a  Christian  way,  the  pastor 
cannot  safely  place  on  the  shoulders  of  others, 
even  if  they  be  religious,  the  burden  of  instructing 
his  young  people  in  Catholic  doctrine.  Whenever 
and  wherever  it  is  at  all  feasible  he  must  show 
himself  a  true  spiritual  father  by  personally  pro- 
viding his  children  with  their  spiritual  nourish- 
ment. 

That  there  are  cases,  and  all  too  many  of  them, 
where  such  providing  is  not  feasible  is  known  to 
all  who  are  familiar  with  conditions  in  most  of  our 
larger  cities;  and  hence  it  becomes  imperative  that 
agencies  other  than  the  pastor  and  his  assistants 
be  employed  in  order  that  thousands  on  thousands 
of  Catholic  young  people  be  kept  Catholic.  It  may 
interest  some  readers  of  these  pages  to  learn  that 
one  agency  which  is  proving  itself  especially 
effective  in  this  respect  has  been  at  work  for  five 
or  six  years  in  Chicago.  In  1912  Father  John  M. 
Lyons,  S.  J.,  of  the  Holy  Family  Church  in  that 
city,    aided   by    a    band    of   zealous    catechists, 


42 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


obtained  the  permission  of  the  late  Archbishop 
Quigley  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  instructing  chil- 
dren who  could  not  be  reached  by  the  parochial 
schools.     Their  initial  success  led  to  the  speedy 
organization  of  'The  Catholic  Instruction  League," 
the  main  object  of  which  is  declared  to  be  "to 
instruct  in  Christian  Doctrine  Catholic  children 
whom  the  parochial  schools  cannot  reach,  and  also 
working  boys  and  girls  and  even  adults  who  may 
be  in  need  of  such  instruction.      Free  religious 
instruction  is,  therefore,  the  chief  object  of  the 
league."    Members  of  this  excellent  organization 
(many  of  whom,  it  appears,  are  Catholic  teachers 
in  the  public  schools)  establish  what  are  known 
as  "Catechism  Centers"  in  such  urban  or  rural  dis- 
tricts as  offer  a  field  for  their  activities,  and  under 
the  direction  of  the  pastor  pursue  their  charitable 
and  veritably  blessed  work.    Full  information  con- 
cerning the  League,  its  formation,  and  its  methods 
may  be  secured  by  applying  to  the  secretary,  at 
1080  West  12th  St.,  Chicago,  Illinois;  and  the  pres- 
ent writer  strongly  recommends  that  such  applica- 
tion be  made  by  all  pastors  belonging  to  our  second 
and  third  categories. 

The  reference  in  the  preceding  paragraph  to 
Catholic  teachers  in  the  public  schools  suggests 
the  propriety  of  discussing,  be  it  ever  so  briefly, 
the  congruous  attitude  of  the  priest  towards  such 
of  these  schools  as  exist  in  his  parish,  and  towards 
the  whole  system  which  they  represent.  To  begin 
with,  in  theory  and  in  law  the  public  schools  are 
non-sectarian;  there  is  not  the  slightest  valid  rea- 
son why  they  should  be  allowed  to  become  dis- 


"T7  -w*^^tf?i«s«iar 


k  s-k-.^^^^.Mt^a 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 


43 


tinctivcly  Protestant,  any  more  than  distinctively 
Jewish  or  distinctively  Catholic.  The  >  leinbers  of 
our  Church  contribute  their  full  quota  to  the  edu- 
cational fund  that  supports  the  schools;  and,  hence 
on  the  traditional  American  principle,  "no  taxation 
without  representation,"  are  clearly  entitled  to  a 
proportionate  share  of  administrative  oflices,  seats 
on  the  school  board,  and  positions  on  the  teaching- 
staff.  The  refusal  to  engage  for  public  school 
service  a  teacher  duly  qualified  in  every  respect 
save  that  he  oi*  she  is  a  Catholic,  is  concrete 
bigotry,  patent  injustice,  and  the  direct  opposite 
of  the  vaunted  American  "square  deal."  The 
attempt  to  identify  the  public  school  with  this  or 
that  Protestant  sect  by  holding  graduating  exer- 
cises— so-called  baccalaureate  sermons,  etc. — in 
Protestant  churches  is  essentially  nothing  else  than 
brazen  effrontery.  And  the  not  uncommon  reply 
of  the  sectarian  preacher  to  Catholic  objectors  to 
such  action,  "We  allow  you  Catholics  to  run  your 
own  schools  as  you  like:  what  business  have  you 
to  meddle  with  ours?"  is  sheer  puerility.  Our 
obvious  answer  is:  "The  public  schools  are  not 
yours  any  more  than  ours,  since  we  help  to  support 
them.  Our  parish  schools  are  exclusively  ours, 
since  we  alone  build  them  and  provide  for  their 
upkeep.  Do  you  build  schools  of  your  own  and 
support  them  with  your  own,  not  public,  money — 
and  no  Catholic  will  interfere  with  your  method 
of  conducting  them." 

The  foregoing  principles  are  of  course  elemen- 
tary, but  they  are  apparently  ignored  by  a  very 
large  number  of  non-Catholics  in  our  day;  and  a 


44 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


parish  priest  may  well  see  to  it  that  in  his  own 
village  or  town  or  city  district  specific  acts  or 
habitual  action  in  contravention  of  these  principles 
be  not  allowed  to  pass  Ithout  vigorous  p-otest. 
After  all,  manly  assertion  of  one's  indisf  i;  i  .3 
rights  is  a  legitimate  method  of  preserving  one  j 
own  self-respect,  and  in  the  long  run  it  will  enforce 
the  respect  of  others  as  well. 

As  for  the  priest's  public  attitude  towards  the 
pubhc  school  system  itself,  considered  as  an  Amer- 
ican institution,  there  is,  and  must  necessarily  be, 
diversity  of  opinion  about  the  expediency  of  his 
opposing  or  denouncing  it.    We  sav  expediency, 
for  as  to  his  right  to  do  so,  we  fancy  that  few  will 
contest  it.     As  an  American  citizen  he  has  the 
privilege  of  criticizing,  opposing,  and  seeking  the 
abrogation  of  any  law  or  legal  creation  which  he 
considers  inimical  to  the  public  welfare.     As  a 
patriotic  citizen  he  clearly  has  the  right— is  it  too 
much  to  say  the  duty?— to  work  by  all  lawful 
means  for  the  overthrow  of  any  institution  the  per- 
petuation of  which  he  deems  a  menace  to  the  true 
greatness  of  his  country,  its  morality.    That  the 
public  school  system  is  such  a  menace  in  the  opin- 
ion of  Catholics  was  proven  long  ago  by  the  very 
inception  of  our  parochial  school  system;  that  it  is 
such  a  menace  in  the  estimation  of  an  ever-increas- 
ing number  of  non-Catholics  is  clear  from  the 
establishment  of  denominational  schools  of  their 
own  by  such  churches  as  the  Lutheran,  the  Episco- 
palian, Methodist  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  BapUst. 
and  others.    That  much  the  same  opinion  is  enter- 
tained by  very  many  non-Catholic  lay  publicists  is 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 


45 


evident  to  any  one  who  keeps  abreast  of  the  best 
thought  in  the  secular  press.  Here,  for  instance,  is 
a  citation  from  the  New  England  Journal  of  Educa- 
tion: 

There  is  one  Church  which  makes  religion 
essential  to  education,  and  that  is  the  Catholic 
Church,  in  which  mothers  teach  their  faith  to 
the  infants  at  the  breast  in  their  lullaby  songs, 
and  whose  sisterhoods  and  brotherhoods  and 
priests  imprint  their  religion  on  souls  as  indel- 
ibly as  diamonds  mark  the  hardest  glass.  Thev 
ingrain  their  faith  in  human  hearts  when  most 
plastic  to  the  touch.  Arc  they  wrong?  Are 
they  stupid?  Are  they  ignorant,  that  thev 
found  schools  and  colleges  m  which  religion  is 
taught?  Not  if  a  man  be  worth  more  than  a 
dog,  or  the  human  soul,  with  eternity  for  dur-i- 
tion,  is  of  more  value  than  the  span  of  animal 
existence  for  a  day. 

Looking  upon  it  as  a  mere  speculative  ques- 
tion, with  their  policy  they  will  increase;  with 
ours  we  shall  decrease.  We  are  no  prophet, 
but  it  does  seem  to  us  that.  Catholics  retaming 
their  religious  education,  and  we  our  heathen 
schools,  people  will  gaze  upon  Cathedral 
crosses  all  over  New  England  when  our  meet- 
ing-houses will  be  turned  into  bams.  Let  them 
go  on  teaching  religion  to  their  children,  and 
let  us  go  on  educating  our  children  without 
recognition  of  God,  and  they  will  plant  corn 
and  train  grape-vines  on  the  unknown  graves 
of  Plymouth  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  none  will  dispute  their 
right  of  possession. 

Nor  is  profound  dissatisfaction  with  the  erst- 
while sacrosanct  public  school  system  confined  to 
New  England;  it  is  found  also  in  the  Middle  West. 


46 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


In  December,  1916,  the  Chicago  Evening  Mail  pub- 
lished a  vigorous  editorial  in  which,  after  com- 
menting on  the  fact  that  "for  two  decades  we  have 
had  dinned  into  our  ears  by  theory-mad  educators 
the  claim  that  education — secular  education — was 
the  panacea  for  the  ills  of  society,"  it  gives  the 
various  causes  assigned  for  American  social  and 
moral  distempers,  and  concludes  as  follows: 

The  mistakes  underlying  all  these  super- 
ficial proposals  is  that  they  are  directed  at 
syi.iptoms  rather  than  causes.  They  under- 
take to  rest  morality  on  law  and  conventions. 
They  do  not  take  into  account  the  spiritual 
being  of  man.  They  do  not  recognize  that 
character  and  conscience  are  developed  simul- 
taneously with  the  physical  growth  of  the 
child.  They  ignore  the  century-proven  fact 
that  the  basis  of  all  true  morality,  justice,  or- 
der, and  progress  is  religion.  Religion  is  the 
basic,  fundamental,  and  positive  necessity  of 
the  well-rounded  character.  The  breakdown 
of  the  religious  instruction  of  youth,  the  total 
secularization  of  their  lives,  the  substitution  of 
easjr  conventions  fc»*  the  fear  of  God,  the  con- 
fusion of  refined  paganism  with  culture,  the 
failure  of  the  home  to  place  the  compass  of 
religion  in  the  hands  of  the  children— this  and 
these  are  the  true  explanation  of  the  causes 
and  the  cure.  Religious  training  of  the  young 
is  the  foundation  essential  to  all  reform  and 
lasting  pro£[ress.  And  we  mean  a  positive  and 
not  a  negative  religion. 

The  only  novel  feature  about  the  foregoing  is 
the  source  from  which  it  is  taken.  As  an  exposi- 
tion of  Catholic  doctrine  on  the  subject,  it  is  older 


THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  SCHOOL 


47 


than  Thomas  Aquinas  or  Augustine  or  Bernard; 
as  the  declaration  of  an  American  secular  journal, 
it  is  to  say  the  least  an  interesting  sign  of  the  times. 
There  are  not  wanting  other  signs  that  the  people 
of  this  country  are  rapidly  losing  much  of  that 
exaggerated  admiration,  not  to  say  reverence,  for 
the  public  school  system  which  has  come  to  them 
by  tradition  from  the  middle-nineteenth  century. 
And  surely  not  without  reason.  They  know,  for 
instance,  that  the  report  of  a  Commission  recently 
appointed  by  the  Mayor  of  Philadelphia  is  true  of 
many  more  communities  than  the  one  investigated. 
Said  the  report :  "So  much  vice  was  found  among 
school  children  that  the  Commission  reluctantly 
concludes  that  vice  is  first  taught  to  the  Philadel- 
phia child  in  the  class-room.  Sixty  per  cent  of  the 
school-girls  interrogated  turned  out  to  have 
learned,  before  they  were  ten  or  eleven  years  old, 
a  variety  of  bad  habits." 

Submitted  to  the  spiritual  test  of  judging  a 
tree  by  its  fruits,  our  public  school  system  can 
hardly  be  said  to  justify  its  continued  existence. 
It  is  very  largely  responsible  for  the  facts  that  one- 
fourth  the  people  of  this  country  do  not  believe  in 
God;  that  only  two-fifths  of  them  are  church-goers, 
while  two-thirds  are  practically  ignorant  of  all 
religion;  that  America  enjoys  the  unenviable  pre- 
eminence of  leading  the  world  in  murder,  and 
crime  generally,  as  it  does  also  in  divorce;  that 
socialism  and  syndicalism  with  sporadic  anarchy 
are  increasing  to  an  alarming  extent;  and  that 
race-suicide  is  being  preached  from  the  house-tops. 
Small  wonder  it  is  waning  in  public  esteem  since. 


48 


1 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


like  the  Veiled  Prophet  of  Ispahan,  the  system, 
unveiled  in  its  legiUmate  products,  discloses 
Mokanna-like  unloveliness.  The  downright  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that  Horace  Mann  and  the  other 
and  later  upbuilders  of  our  public  school  system 
constructed  a  civic  Frankenstein  which,  lackirt 
the  soul  of  education,  religion,  has  developed  to  the 
country's  positive  detriment.  All  the  more  reason, 
this,  why  the  Catholic  clergy  should  be  unremitting 
in  their  efforts  to  offset  its  dangers  by  providing 
for  the  religious  training  of  each  and  all  of  the 
children  confided  to  their  pastoral  charge. 


THE  PRIEST'S  TABLE 

T1m7  are  as  sick  that  surfeit  with  too  much,  m  they  that 
starve  with  nothing. — Shakespeare. 

An  intelligent  friend  of  mine  recently  remarked:  "I  think  a 
man  ought  to  eat  what  he  wants  to  eat. "— '  •  Yes, "  I  replied, 
''provided  he  wants  to  eat  what  he  ought  to  eat."— Peore* 
Eintting,  M.  D. 

B«  not  greedy  in  any  feasting  ...  for  in  many  meats 
there  will  be  sickness,  and  greediness  will  turn  to  choler.  By  sur- 
futiiig  many  have  perished:  but  he  that  is  temperate  shall  proloaff 
life. — Eoelea. :  xxxvii,  Si-34. 

/^NE  clerical  adage  that  is  safe  never  to  become 
^^  obsolete,  or  to  lapse,  at  least  in  sacerdotal  cir- 
cles, into  innocuous  desuetude,  is:  "After  all, 
priests  are  men,  not  angels."  As  used  by  clerics, 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  the  saying  is  not 
so  much  a  disavowal  of  any  pretensions  to  such 
qualities  as  in  profane  literature  and  in  ordin;»ry 
conversation  are  commonly  ascribed  to  angels — 
beauty,  brightness,  innocence,  and  unusual  gra- 
ciousness  of  manner  and  kindliness  of  heart— as  it 
is  a  denial  of  any  freedom  or  exemption  from  the 
passions  and  appetites  and  temptations  to  which 
the  average  human  being  is  subject.  Yes;  a  priest 
is  a  man,  not  only  in  the  zoological  sense  that  he  is 
"a  featherless  plantigrade  biped  mammal  of  the 
genus  Homo,"  but  in  the  theological  one  that  he  is 
"a  rational  animal";  and  some  of  us  are  perhaps 
inclined  to  think  that  in  our  own  case  the  last  word 
of  the  theological  dcfmition  may  well  receive  the 
greater  emphasis.  Without  going  so  far  as  to 
endorse  the  opinion  of  the  flippant  essayist  who 

49 
4 


50 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


H 


asserts  that  "Man  was  created  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels — and  has  been  getting  a  little  lower  ever 
since,"  we  are  all  acutely  conscious  that  the  animal 
part  of  us,  our  body,  is  a  stubborn  fact  of  which 
even  the  most  aspiring  and  ascetic  soul  must  per- 
force make  considerable  account.  Not  the  least 
insistent  and  self-assertive  organ  of  this  material 
body  of  ours  is  the  stomach,  and  accordingly  one 
matter  which  neither  the  priest  nor  any  other  non- 
angelic,  mundane  being  can  afford  to  disregard  is 
the  question  of  food. 

If  it  were  at  all  necessary  to  proffer  any  apol- 
ogy for  discussing  in  such  a  volume  as  this  so 
material,  gross,  vulgar,  unesthetic  and  unascetic  a 
subject  as  mere  eating  and  drinking,  one  might 
take  high  philosophical  ground  and  quote  Plato 
to  the  effect  that:  "The  man  of  understanding 
will  be  far  from  yielding  to  brutal  or  irrational 
pleasures — but  he  will  always  be  desirous  of  pre- 
serving the  harmony  of  the  body  for  the  sake  of 
the  concord  of  the  soul."  If  the  dictum  of  the 
Grecian  philosopher  be  considered  insufficient  to 
indue  the  subject  with  congruous  dignity,  the  fol- 
lowing somewhat  grandiloquent  paragraph  of  an 
American  physician  will  perhaps  b  >  thought  ade- 
quate: "The  history  of  man's  diet  is  the  history 
of  the  human  race.  It  is  the  story  of  his  evolve- 
ment  from  the  lowest  forms  of  savagery  to  his 
present  pinnacle.  It  begins  with  the  cave-dweller, 
gnawing  with  wolf -like  fangs  at  a  joint  of  raw 
bear-meat,  and  ends  with  the  potentate  drinking 
champagne  from  a  golden  chalice.  It  is  the  his- 
tory of  oppression  and  tyranny,  and  of  independ- 


THE  PRIEST'S  TABLE 


51 


ence  and  freedom;  of  political  growth  and 
conquest,  and  of  barbarian  invasion  and  desola- 
tion; of  health  and  wealth;  of  poverty  and  disease." 
Putting  aside  both  the  philosopher  and  the  phy- 
sician, however,  we  prefer  to  justify  the  appear- 
ance of  the  present  essay  in  a  book  for  priests  on 
the  entirely  sufficient  grounds  sung  by  Owen  Mere- 
dith: 

We  may  live  without  poetry,  music,  and  art; 

We  may  live  without  conscience  and  live  without  heart; 

We  may  live  without  friends;  we  may  live  without  books; 

But  civilized  man  cannot  live  without  cooks. 

He  may  live  without  books— what  is  knowledge  but  grievingl 

He  may  live  without  hope— what  is  hope  but  deceivingi 

He  may  live  without  love— what  is  passion  but  piningt 

But  whei-e  is  the  man  that  can  live  without  dining  t 

It  may  be  urged  of  course,  and  not  without 
some  specious  force,  that,  granting  the  real  impor- 
tance  of  the  subject  of  food  and  nutrition,  still, 
since  the  clerical  stomach  is  not  different  from  the 
layman's,  the  number  of  volumes  that  have  already 
been  written  on  the  subject  and  the  endless  series 
of  articles  dealing  with  it  that  are  constantly 
appearing  in  the  magazines  and  newspapers  give 
all  necessary  information  thereon,  and  render 
quite  superfluous  any  specific  discussion  of  the 
priest's  table  as  differentiated  from  any  one  else's. 
The  point,  however,  is  only  partially  well  taken. 
In  the  matter  of  eating,  and  especially  in  that  of 
abstaining  from  eating,  the  priest's  life  differs  not 
a  little  from  that  of  laymen,  and  hence  there  are 
some  counsels  peculiarly  appropriate  to  him, 
though  not  of  general  applicability.     The  great 


52 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


> 


I 


U 


I 


majority  of  priests,  for  instance,  fast  until  about 
noon  on  Sundays  and  on  occasional  week-dnys 
because  of  their  saying  a  late  Mass.  The  neces- 
sity of  such  fasting  may  well  affect  their  usual 
attitude  toward  food  during  the  other  days  of  the 
week.  Many  persons,  most  persons  perhaps,  call 
one  of  their  three  daily  meals  their  favorite  or  best 
meal.  They  come  to  it  with  better  appetite,  and 
eat  more  abundantly  than  is  the  case  at  their  other 
repasts.  With  some  it  is  breakfast,  with  others 
the  midday  dinner,  and  with  still  others  the  eve- 
ning supper.  Now,  no  matter  how  it  may  be  with 
the  layman,  the  cleric  who  has  to  fast  on  Sundays 
is  surely  making  a  dietetic  mistake  if  he  habitually 
takes  a  hearty  breakfast  on  week-days.  "The 
digestive  system,  when  in  proper  running  order," 
says  Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams,  "is  wonderfully 
clocklike  in  its  operations,  and  to  disturb  the  regu- 
larity of  its  activities  once  in  seven  days  is  not 
conducive  to  health  or  happiness." 

Common  sense,  apart  from  any  medical  pro- 
nouncement, teaches  the  same  lesson.  It  clearly 
stands  to  reason  that  the  less  sustenance  I  habit- 
ually take  on  ordinary  mornings,  the  less  derange- 
ment there  will  be  when  I  take  none  at  all  on 
Sunday  mornings,  and  accordingly  the  less  danger 
of  my  suffering  from  headaches  and  other  discom- 
forts experienced  by  very  many  priests  who 
observe  the  dominical  fast.  It  is  pertinent  to  add 
that  the  change  from  a  hearty  breakfast  to  a  light 
one,  or  even  a  very  light  one,  can  be  effected  with- 
out any  considerable  inconvenience.  The  stomach 
registers  decided  objections  to  irregularity  in  the 


THE   PRIEST'S   TABLE 


53 


treatment  accorded  to  it;  but,  like  most  other 
organs  of  the  body,  it  soon  learns  to  accommodate 
itself  to  new  habits  that  are  not  in  themselves  in- 
jurious. Those  members  of  some  of  our  religious 
orders  who  fast  habitually  every  morning  appar- 
ently enjoy  as  good  health  and  are  capable  of  as 
efficient  service  as  those  of  us  who  like  our  "three 
square  meals"  a  day;  pnd  veiy  probably  most  read- 
ers of  this  page  have  learned  from  their  personal 
experience  during  more  than  one  Lenten  season 
that  after  the  first  week  or  ten  days,  habitual  fast- 
ing is  conducive  to  general  well-being  rather  than 
to  physical  discomfort  or  distress. 

As  for  another  practical  point  in  connection 
with  the  clerical  table,  a  distinction  must  be  made 
between  such  priests  as  live  alone,  or  at  least  eat 
alone,  and  such  as  have  permanent  boarders  in 
the  persons  of  curates  or  assistants.  If  I  am  living 
by  myself,  it  is  clearly  my  right  (within  fhe  bounds 
of  Christian  temperance)  to  eat  and  drink  what- 
ever I  like.  If  it  is  my  duty  to  provide  meals  for 
others  besides  myself,  it  is  just  as  clearly  not  my 
right  to  impose  upon  them  my  personal  dietetic 
whims  and  caprices  either  as  to  the  kind,  or  qual- 
ity, or  quantity  of  the  food  to  be  taken.  A  pastor 
mav  be  thoroughly  convinced  that  fruit  and 
uncooked  cereals,  with  a  cup  of  coffee,  constitute 
the  best  possible  breakfast  for  any  one,  young  or 
old;  but  his  conviction  does  not  warrant  his  with- 
holding from  his  robust  assistant  (who  conceivably 
classes  cereals  with  sawdust)  the  ham  or  bacon  or 
chops  or  steak  to  which  that  young  man  has  been 
accustomed  and  without  which  he  feels  insuffi- 


54 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ciently  nourished.  So,  too,  with  the  variety  recom- 
mended by  all  medical  men  in  the  matter  of  foods. 
The  traditional  French  complaint,  toujours  per- 
drix  (always  partridges),  is  universally  recognized 
as  being  well  grounded.  The  most  palatable  and 
succulent  dishes,  if  served  day  after  day,  will  pall 
upon  the  appetite  and  become  distasteful.  Good 
roast  beef  is  no  doubt  excellent  food,,  but  even  a 
pastor's  especial  fondness  for  it  is  iiardly  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  his  forcing  it  upon  an  assistant  six 
or  seven  times  a  week. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  quite  possible  that 
assistants  may  be  fully  as  whimsical  about  their 
diet  as  arc  some  pastors.    It  is  not  an  unheard-of 
thing  for  a  critical  curate  to  complain  of  being 
half-starved  at  a  table  which  is  plentifully  sup- 
plied with  good,  plain,  substantial  food,  and  to 
imply  that  porterhouse  steak  for  breakfast  and 
roast  turkey  for  dinner  should  be  the  usual  thing 
at  least  several  times  a  week.    In  ail  probability 
he  was  not  accustomed  to  that  sort  of  diet  in  his 
boyhood  at  home,  and  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  he  had  to  put  up  with  a  much  simpler,  less 
expensive  regimen  during  his  sojourn  at  college 
and  seminary.    Exceptional  cases  aside,  a  pastor 
is  quite  warranted  in  supposing  that  his  table  is 
adequately  supplied  when  it  is  abundantly  fur- 
nished with  several  of  the  nuhierous  varieties  of 
food  that  by  the  common  consent  of  mankind  have 
been  voted  wholesome.     Altogether  exaggerated 
importance  is  too  often  attributed  to  this  dictum 
of  Lucretius:     "Different  food  is  pleasant  and 
nutritious  for  different  creatures;  that  which  to 


THE   PRIEST'S   TABLE 


55 


some  is  nauseous  and  bitter  may  yet  to  others  seem 
passing  sweet;  and  the  discrepancy  is  so  great  that 
what  to  one  man  is  food,  to  another  is  rank 
poison."  While  the  statement  contains  no  doubt 
a  modicum  of  truth,  it  may  well  be  qualified  by 
this  declaration  of  an  oldtime  American  physician. 
Dr.  Austin  Flint:  "I  have  never  known  a  person 
to  become  a  faddist  regarding  diet  without  also 
becoming  a  dyspeptic." 

This  mention  of  faddists  suggests  a  reference 
to  the  large  number  of  people  in  both  lay  and 
clerical  circles  who  deny  themselves  this,  that,  or 
the  other  kind  of  food  because,  as  they  say,  it 
doesn't  agree  with  them.  A  medical  authority  of 
considerable  prestige  in  the  scientific  world,  the 
Dr.  Williams  already  quoted,  thinks  that  this 
notion  is  very  often  a  mistaken  one.  The  particu- 
lar variety  of  food  in  question  may  have  been 
taken  at  a  time  when  anything  would  have  dis- 
agreed with  the  eater,  or  it  may  have  been  taken 
in  excessive  quantity.  "It  is  worth  while,"  he  says, 
"to  make  very  sure  before  you  deny  yourself,  on 
the  ground  of  personal  idiosyncrasy,  what  may 
really  be  a  useful  and  pleasant  article  of  food." 
Much  the  same  thing  is  to  be  said  of  the  refusal  of 
many  persons  to  take  certain  kinds  of  food  because 
of  a  distaste  for  them.  The  distaste  may  be  the 
result  of  some  unpleasant  experience  under  excep- 
tional circumstances.  The  present  writer,  for 
instance,  conceived  some  years  ago  a  genuine  dis- 
gust for  lobsters,  and  for  a  long  time  refused  to 
partake  of  that  excellent  crustacean,  simply  be- 
cause of  a  visit  paid  to  a  lobster  factory  in  which 


56 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I 


•■ 


I 


the  sanitary  conditions  were  not  of  the  best  and 
the  stench  was  of  the  rankest.    Let  him  hasten  to 
add  that  an  attempt  to  give  him,  as  a  boy,  a  dis- 
taste for  his  favorite  berry  by  administering  his 
periodical  spring-time  powders  or  pills  through 
the  medium  of  strawberry  preserves  resulted  in 
ignominious  failure.     Yielding  to  aversions  that 
may  easily  be  overcome  in  the  matter  of  food  is  a 
mistake,  and  very  frequently  one  that  entails  con- 
sidfi'Bble  inconvenience.    To  be  able  to  eat  with 
relish  all  kinds  of  common  foods  that  are  set  be- 
fore him  at  home  or  elsewhere  is  not  only  a  bless- 
ing for  which  priest  or  layman  may  well  be  thank- 
ful, but  a  capacity  which  the  normally  healthy 
individual  may  easily  acquire. 

All  general  rules  of  course  suffer  exceptions, 
and  so,  while  it  is  generally  true  that  what  is  whole- 
some for  one  healthy  person  is  wholesome  for 
another,  a  man  is  not  necessar'y  i  hypochondriac 
or  a  valetudinarian  because  he  affirms  that  such 
or  such  an  article  of  food  does  not  agree  with  him, 
or  that  such  another  is  distasteful  to  him.  If  his 
own  experience,  not  infrequently  repeated,  has 
unequivocally  taught  him  that  hL  indulgence  in  a 
particular  dish  invariably  produces  stomachic  dis- 
orders, common  sense  dictates  his  avoidance  of 
that  dish.  As  to  the  whole  question  of  diet,  indeed, 
there  is  more  truth  than  extravagance  in  the  dic- 
tum: "At  thirty-five  a  man  is  his  own  physician 
or  a  fool."  When  one  has  reached  that  age  one's 
familiarity  with  the  effects  of  this  or  that  dietary 
on  one's  personal  health  and  well-being  ought  to  be 
a  sufficiently  safe  guide  in  choosing  the  edibles  that 


THE   PRIEST'S   TABLE 


57 


constitute  one's  meals.  At  the  same  time  we 
should  be  chary  of  excluding  from  our  bill  of  fare 
any  staple  article  of  food  simply  because,  once  or 
twice,  and  perhaps  under  exceptional  conditions, 
it  has  affected  us  disagreeably.  While  the  proof 
of  the  pudding  may  be  in  the  eating,  it  can  hardly 
be  considered  conclusive  proof  unless  the  particu- 
lar kind  of  pudding  has  been  eaten  more  than  once 
or  twice  or  thrice. 

On  the  whole,  however,  priests,  like  other  peo- 
ple, probably  injure  their  internal  economy,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  the  efficiency  of  their  labors, 
more  by  eating  the  things  they  like  than  by  ab- 
staining from  those  they  dislike.  Scarcely  if  at 
all  less  than  the  laity,  the  clergy  are  concerned  in 
this  fact  unanimously  affirmed  by  the  world's  best 
physicians:  "Gastronomic  errors  are  among  the 
most  widespread  of  man's  sins,  and  the  penalties 
he  pays  therefor  are  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
not  merely  expiative  but  retributory;  not  merely 
penitential,  but  punitive,  since  often  'the  wages  of 
sin  is  death.' "  In  so  far  as  priests,  and  more  par- 
ticularly middle-aged  and  elderly  priests,  are  con- 
cerned, these  gastronomic  errors  may  be  succinctly 
expressed  in  the  statement  that  they  partake  too 
often  of  the  wroilg  kinds  of  food,  and  eat  too  much 
of  the  right  kinds.  Nor  is  there  any  intention 
whatever  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  in  making  this 
statement,  of  implying  that  the  clergy  (himself 
included)  are  given  to  even  the  lesser  degrees  of 
the  sin  of  gluttony.  Most  of  our  transgressions  in 
this  respect  are  errors  of  judgment  rather  than 
wilful   violations   of   the   moral   law.     That   the 


58 


SACERPOTAl     SAPEOrARp 


errors  f  re  quasi-universal  wou 
opinion  nf  standans  dicteti    aui 
assert  that  "we  all  «  «t  about  a  ti 
"Without  gofntf  in*  >  any     lore 
discussion   >f  thf^  qui  atita 
ues  o^  nitr  ^enous      id  no 
of  the  cori*'ct  pi  ipt   tio^^ 
drates  and  fats  in  our 
mention    some    >utstiind 
ciples  that  shir  ? la  be  tak- 
of  determining    vhat  vi 
that  both  tliekjud  ;  i« 


*etn      )  be  the 
r   ie'       nee  tl  ?y 

'<  -ch 

w  it       icchi      U 

and     jaiuatlve  \     - 

itrug  aous  foods,  or 

of  proteins,  carbohy- 

nary  meals,  we  may 

ig   common-sense   prin- 

account  of  in  the  matter 

all  eat.    One  of  these  is 

qu   ntity  of  the  food  we 


Hi  »n 

whc 

n 

t&iit 

the 


take   should   vary,     omewhi       according   to   the 
n   ture  of  our  habiiui*    activiiies.    The  sedentary 
ngagec     a  mt  ntal  work  and  the  day-laborer 
e  exertioi    is  pv  ely  muscular  evidently  do 
equ'Vi   thi    same  diet,  and  if  they  habitually 
the  sime  rJnd  and  quantity  of  food,  one  of 
wr   Will  be     omiiiitting  a  gastroncr^ic  sin. 
Father!    arencr   x    lo 'tpends  his  forenoon  between 
his  ofli  e  j^nd  his.     '  .ay,  attending  to  his  corre- 
spondence, or  reaumg,  clearly  does  not  need  so 
full  a  dinner  of  meat,  eggs,  milk,  cheese,  or  legu- 
mino^     vegetables  as  does  his  man  Mike,  whose 
f oF'-r    m  has  been  devoted  io  sawing  wood,  shovel- 
ing   ual,  or  digging  in  the  field  or  garden.    And 
if    nevertheless.  Father  Clarence  indulges  in  so 
'      rty  a  dinner,  elementary  knowledge  of  physiol- 
should  teach  him  that  it  is  incumbent  upon 
a  to  take  a  considerable  amount  of  physical 
ercise  before  again  sitting  down  to  eat.    It  ought 
be  axiomatic  that,  if  the  body  is  to  be  kept  in  a 
aealthy  condition,  some  sort  of  nutritional  equi- 


THE    PRIEST'S    TABLE 


59 


librium  must  be  established,  the'  rliere  should  be 
some  proportion  between  the  oiuput  of  heat  and 
energy  and  the  intake  of  food,  since,  after  all,  the 
principal  if  m  th«  sole  purpose  of  food  is  to 
replace  in  our  Kxij  the  matter  absorbed  by  the 
functions  of  life  and  the  exertions  of  labor. 

It  may  prove  not  uninteresting  to  enumerate 
here  several  of  the  propositions  which  United 
States  scientists  commonly  use  as  factors  in  com- 
puting the  results  of  systematic  dietary  studies — 
propositions  based  largely  upon  experimental 
data.  Given  that  a  man  at  moderately  active  mus- 
cular work  needs  in  a  certain  period  thirty  ounces 
of  food,  then  a  man  at  hard  muscular  work  needs 
in  the  same  period  thirty-six  ounces,  one  at  light 
muscular  work  needs  twenty-seven  ounces,  and 
one  at  a  sedentary  occupation  needs  only  twenty- 
four  ounces.  On  this  basis  the  priest's  man  Mike, 
of  the  preceding  paragraph,  would  need  one  and 
a  half  times  as  much  dinner  as  the  priest  himself; 
and  it  would  clearly  be  a  ^•' ♦  'c  indiscret  n  for 
Father  Clarence  to  revers  ^rt  ' 

one  and  a  half  times  a  -^ 

it  is  questionable  whc 

exception  to  Franklin's  la 

kind,  since  the  improve  v^i 

as  much  as  nature  reqi  .  > 

no  good  reason  for  douiii         ac  ^t;  ni 

by  innumerable   medical  piactitioii    -s,    thai 
every  persn.n  who  in  our  day  and  country  dies  fi 
insufficient  natritlon.  starvation,  there  are  at  least 
a  dozen  or  a  stjore  whose  death  is  the  indirect,  and 
very  often  the  direct,  result  of  overeating.    Vol- 


60 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


taire  is  not  an  author  who  commends  himself  par- 
ticularly to  clerical  readers;  but  the  most  orthodox 
priest  will  hardly  quarrel  with  these  precepts  of 
that  arch-infidel :  "Regimen  is  better  than  physic. 
Every  one  should  be  his  own  physician. — Eat  with 
moderation  what  you  know  u^  experience  to  agree 
with  your  constitution.  -Nothing  is  good  for  the 
body  but  what  we  can  digest.  What  can  procure 
digestion?    Exercise." 

Eating  the  wrong  kind  of  food  is  not  perhaps 
so  prevalent  a  gastronomic  error,  among  clerics 
or  others,  as  eating  too  much  of  the  right  kinds; 
but  it  is  an  existent  error,  nevertheless.     If  we 
have  not  personally  proved  this  in  our  own  experi- 
ence (as  in  all  probability  most  of  us  now  and 
then  have  proved  it),  we  have  at  least  verified  the 
statement  in  our  observation  of  others.    Memory 
forthwith  supplies  the  present  writer  with  several 
notable  examples.    To  mention  only  one :    Father 
Michael,  an  exemplary  cleric  of  three  and  a  quar- 
ter score  years,  had  during  a  considerable  number 
of  those  years  been  afQicted  with  stomach  troubles. 
Reiterated  experiences  had  convinced  him   that 
eating  meat  at  his  supper  was  the  forerunner  of 
inevitable  distress  throughout  the  night  and  the 
following  day;  and  accordingly  as  a  rule  he  ab- 
stained therefrom.    Now  and  then,  however,  when 
his  digestive  apparatus  had  been  functioning  nicely 
for  a  week  or  two,  and  when  on  the  supper-table 
there  appeared  a  variety  of  meat  to  which  he  was 
partial — cold    turkey    or    country    sausage.    Tor 
instance — he  would  allow  himself  to  be  persuaded 
to  take  "just  a  small  piece,  a  mere  mouthful."   The 


THE   PRIEST'S   TABLE 


61 


said  mouthful  being  consumed,  he  would  remark : 
"Do  you  know,  that  is  really  delicious.  I  think  I'll 
take  a  little  more,"  and  would  proceed  to  do  so, 
with  considerable  present  satisfaction  no  doubt, 
but  a  satisfaction  as  short-lived  as  his  subsequent 
discomfort  was  protracted.  Who  has  not  known 
such  a  dietetic  blunderer?  "We  eat,"  writes  a 
medical  author,  "not  to  supply  our  needs,  but  to 
satiate  our  appetites.  We  are  woefully  lacking 
in  the  strength  of  mind  necessary  to  deny  our- 
selves those  things  which  experience  has  proved 
to  be  objectionable,  much  less  to  practise  general 
and  protracted  self-denial,  until  grim  admonition 
from  within  drives  us  thereto." 

It  is  worth  while  to  remark  that  the  men  who, 
like  Father  Michael,  receive  this  "grim  admonition 
from  within"  immediately,  or  soon,  after  their 
making  a  gastronomic  blunder,  are  on  the  whole 
more  fortunate  than  some  others  who  continue  for 
years  to  commit  dietetic  mistakes  without  receiv- 
ing from  their  internal  organs  any  decided  protest. 
A  recent  writer  on  the  smoking  habit  shrewdly 
declares  that  while  excessive  smoking,  like  glut- 
tony, is  harmful,  the  fact  that  the  former  works 
immediately  is  a  wise  provision  of  nature,  since 
discontinuance  leads  to  recovery,  while  imn.od- 
erate  eating  tends  insidiously  to  produce  organic 
disturbances  which  may  become  irremediable 
before  they  are  discovered,  and  may  not  yield  to 
better  counsel  and  improved  habits.  So  true  is 
this,  that,  of  the  thirty-five  thousand  Americans 
who,  according  to  our  government  reports,  annu- 
ally succumb  to  Bright's  disease,  fully  one-half,  it 


I 


62 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


is  stated,  are  unaware  that  they  have  the  disease 
at  all  until  it  is  too  late  to  arrest  its  progress. 
Undue  concern  about  one's  health  is  of  course  to 
be  deprecated;  and  there  is  without  a  doubt  some- 
thing of  truth  in  the  familiar  statement  that  the 
men  who  are  always  bothering  about  their  physi- 
cal well-being  and  taking  infinite  precautions  as  to 
diet,  exposure  to  draughts,  the  temperature  of 
their  living  rooms,  etc.,  are  precisely  those  who  are 
most  frequently  ailing;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
incontestable  that  many  men,  and  not  a  few  mid- 
dle-aged priests  among  them,  habitually  lead  a  life 
which,  while  not  on  the  surface  notably  unsanitary, 
is  nevertheless  surely  leading  them  to  an  untimely 
death.  Those  of  us  who  in  our  fifth  or  sixth  decade 
continue  that  habit  of  eating  three  hearty  meals  a 
day  which  we  formed  years  ago  when  our  physical 
activity  was  considerably  greater  than  it  is  at  pres- 
ent, may  well  reflect  on  this  last  word  of  the  scien- 
tists on  Bright's  disease:  "Nine  times  out  of  ten 
it  is  the  result,  more  or  less  direct,  of  disorders  in 
the  digestive  r  ?\,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  these 
disorders  ar  oo'  to  too  much  eating  and  drinking, 
too  much  bcL  ag  over  desks,  and  too  little  fresh 
air." 

Connected  with  our  general  subject  there  are 
one  or  two  common  fallacies  that  merit  exposure. 
One  of  them  is  that  an  invariable  relation  of  effect 
and  cause  exists  between  one's  physical  appear- 
ance and  one's  prowess  with  the  knife  and  fork, 
that  leanness,  quasi-emaciation,  skin-and-boneness, 
are  always  due  to  abstemiousness,  while  plump- 
ness of  form  and,  a  fortiori,  obesity  are  certain 


THE    PRIEST'S    TABLE 


es 


signs  of  over-indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of  the 
table.  Leanness  and  its  opposite  are  sometimes 
hereditary;  and  history  as  well  as  personal  obser- 
vation proves  that  there  have  been,  and  are,  obese 
saints  and  thin  gluttons.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  wr 
not  particularly  sylph-like  in  form,  nor  was  tl  at 
uncanonized  nineteenth-century  saint,  the  author 
of  All  for  Jesus.  A  diocesan  cleric,  during  a  visit 
to  a  monastery  in  which  one  of  his  brothers  was  a 
religious,  remarked  one  day:  "Say,  Tom,  what  a 
thoroughly  mortified,  saint-like,  ascetic  face  your 
Father  X.  has!" — "Ascetic  fiddlesticks,"  came  the 
entirely  frank  if  not  very  charitable  reply,  "he's 
the  most  confirmed  dyspeptic  crank  in  tlie  Com- 
munity. Our  real  saint  is  Father  L.  over  there  in 
the  comer,  that  rolypoly  individual  who  looks  like 
an  over-fed  alderman,  and  yet  eats  less  in  a  week 
than  Father  X.  does  in  a  day."  General  rules  re 
subject  to  so  many  exceptions  that  it  is  not  always 
safe  to  apply  them  to  particular  cases. 

Another  specious  fallacy  about  eating,  or  diet- 
ing, is  that  persons  who  fast,  either  habitually  or 
occasionally,  take  as  much  food  at  their  one  full 
meal  as  they  would  take  in  their  three  regular 
meals  if  they  were  not  fasting.  In  all  probability 
those  who  make  this  statement  do  not  really 
believe  it,  themselves.  In  any  case,  priests  who 
have  frequent  experience  of  fasting  must  know 
that  the  assertion  is  so  far  from  being  true  that  it 
is  simply  ridiculous.  If  it  ever  wears  any  color  of 
truth,  it  must  be  in  the  case  of  the  person  who 
fasts  only  once  in  a  long  while,  and  whose  sto<!.iach 
has  accordingly   not   become   habituated   to   the 


64 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I 


changed  regime.  In  the  present  writer's  own  case, 
and,  he  ventures  to  say,  in  that  of  the  average  man 
who  has  adopted  the  plan  of  taking  only  one  full 
meal  a  day,  that  meal  is  not  a  bit  fuller  now  than 
it  was  some  years  ago  when  it  was  daily  supple- 
mented by  two  other  hearty  repasts.  Apropos  of 
habitual  fasting,  by  the  way,  George  Fordyce  de- 
clares: "One  meal  a  day  is  enough  for  a  lion,  and 
it  ought  to  be  for  a  man, " — at  least  for  a  man 
whose  life  is  largely  an  indoor,  sedentary  one,  and 
who  takes  little  or  no  physical  exercise. 

An  excellent  concomitant  of  an  enjoyable  meal, 
and  one  that  should  never  be  absent  from  a  table 
at  which  several  priests  are  gathered,  is  lively  con- 
versation. It  may  seem  somewhat  rash  to  ques- 
tion the  advantages  of  the  oldtime  monastic  plan 
of  eating  in  silence,  the  diners  listening  to  a  reader 
instead  of  talking  among  themselves;  but  the 
advantages  are  perhaps  spiritual  rather  than 
hygienic.  At  any  rate,  where  no  rule  forbids  talk- 
ing at  table,  the  said  monastic  plan  may  assuredly 
be  improved  upon.  For  one  thing,  animated  con- 
versation during  meals  militates  against  our  com- 
mitting the  typically  American  dietetic  sin — eating 
too  apidly,  bolting  one's  food  rather  than  masti- 
cating it  thoroughly.  Apart  from  this  worth-while 
result,  lively  speech  and  intermittent  laughter  are 
effective  aids  to  digestion.  There  are  many  places, 
doubt,  in   which   diocesan   priests   may  con- 


no 


gruously  and  profitably  practise  "the  great  silence" 
to  which  their  religious  confreres  are  often  con- 
strained; but  the  dining-room  is  not  one  of  them. 
The  limitations  imposed  by  the  title  of  this 


n 


fTSfWT 


THE    PRIEST'S   TABLE 


65 


essay  obviously  exclude  a  number  of  considera- 
tions which  might  appropriately  enough  find  their 
place  in  a  chapter  on  the  general  subject  of  eating. 
It  would,  for  instance,  savor  somewhat  of  imperti- 
nence to  insist  that  a  priest  is  decidedly  out  of 
character  in  the  role  of  either  a  gourmand  or  a 
gourmet,  a  greedy  feeder  or  a  nice  one,  a  con- 
noisseur in  the  delicacies  of  the  table,  an  epicure. 
And  it  would  be  superfluous  to  point  out  that,  more 
than  other  persons,  he  must  "use  as  a  frugal  man 
the  things  that  are  set  before  him,"  and  sedulously 
avoid  giving  any  shadow  of  occasion  for  the  impu- 
tation that  "his  god  is  his  belly."  It  will  not,  how- 
ever, be  irrelevant  to  coaclude  with  the  description 
of  what  in  the  present  writer's  opinion  is  the  best 
of  clerical  meals :  on  i  that  has  fresh  air  and  active 
muscular  exercise  far  an  appetizer;  plain,  substan- 
tial, and  well-cooked  food  for  the  bill  of  fare ;  and 
an  accompaniment  of  pleasant,  cheerful  discourse 
from  the  first  mouthful  to  the  last. 


■*??«— ^l-T- 


V  -^W.4 


mesa 


■-a 


THE  FRATERNAL  CHARITY  OF  PRIESTS 

Let  the  charity  of  the  brotherhood  abide  in  you. — Heb.  xiii,  1. 

I  will  chide  no  heathen  in  the  world  but  myself,  against  whom 
I  know  most  faults. — Shakespeare. 

Fraternal  charity  is  the  sign  of  predet^  i  nation.  It  makes  vm 
known  as  the  true  disciples  of  Christ,  for  it  was  this  divine  virtue 
that  moved  Him  to  live  a  life  of  poverty  and  to  die  in  destivution 
upon  the  Gross. — St.  Vincent  de  PmU. 

WHEN  the  ordinary  everyday  priest  of  this 
twentieth  centurj'  is  reminded  of  the  preg- 
nant aphorism,  Sacerdos  alter  Christus,  and  is 
advised  to  act  conformably  thereto,  he  is  apt  to 
tell  himself  that,  after  all,  the  dictum  is  only  a 
daring  metaphor.  True,  he  performs  a  Christ-like 
role  at  the  altar  and  exercises  Christ-like  powers 
in  the  confessional;  but  there,  he  affirms,  his  quasi- 
identity  with  the  God-Man  ceases,  and  none  but 
visionary  and  unpractical  ascetic  theorists  can 
expect  him  to  reproduce  in  his  workaday  life  the 
multifarious  virtues  and  the  beneficent  activities 
that  distinguished  his  Divine  Master.  That  he 
underestimates  the  justice  of  the  metaphor  goes 
without  saying;  his  resemblance  to  our  Lord  is,  or 
should  be,  closer  than  he  is  inclined  to  admit;  yet 
there  is,  of  course,  a  substratum  of  truth  in  his 
contention.  In  the  downright,  strict,  literal  sense 
of  the  phrase,  he  is  not  "another  Christ,"  and  may, 
if  he  will,  disclaim  the  characterization.  What  he 
cannot  disclaim  with  any  vestige  of  honesty  is  his 
character  of  Christian,  and  Christian  in  the  most 
downright,    strict,    literal    possible   sense   of    the 


- 


T^BT 


FRATERNAL  CHARITY  OF  PRIESTS       67 


word — not  only  a  believer  in  Christ,  but  His  dis- 
ciple, follower,  imitator,  one  who  exemplifies  in  his 
life  his  Divine  Master's  teachings. 

No  ordained  priest,  however  much  he  mini- 
mizes his  obligation  to  practice  the  perfection  of 
the  theological  and  moral  viri  .es  and  thus  make 
his  life  a  faithful  mirror  of  our  Saviour's,  will 
maintain  that  he  is  less  bound  thereto  than  is  the 
ordinary  layman  or  laywoman,  or  will  question 
the  statement  that  a  pastM-'s  virtues  should  notably 
outshine  those  of  the  coesmon  run  of  his  flock.  It 
is  surely  not  demandiiBg  too  much  of  priests  as  a 
body  that  they  so  conduct  themselves  as  to  force 
the  non-Catholic  world  of  to-day  to  remark  of 
them,  as  Tertullian  declares  the  heathens  remarked 
of  the  first  Christians:  "See  how  they  love 
one  another!  how  much  respect  they  have  for  each 
other!  how  ready  they  are  to  render  any  service, 
or  even  to  suffer  death,  for  one  another's  sake!" 
The  tribute  paid  in  the  Ac  is  of  the  Apostles  to  the 
great  mass  of  the  faithful  in  those  early  days  of 
the  Christian  era  ought  to  be  deserved  in  our  own 
day  by  at  least  the  clergy — "The  multitude  of  the 
believers  had  but  one  heart  and  one  soul."  Twen- 
tieth-century priests,  in  a  word,  may  well  show 
themselves,  in  the  matter  of  fraternal  charity  and 
reciprocal  love,  as  good  Christians  as  were  the 
flrst-century  laity. 

Of  tl-e  strictness  of  tlic  obligation  binding  on  all 
Christians,  and  assuredly  not  least  on  the  clergy, 
to  obey  the  second  of  the  two  great  command- 
ments, **Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself," 
no  one  at  all  familiar  with  the  New  Testament  can 


68 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


entertain  the  slightest  doubt.    Even  if  one's  read- 
ing of  that  inspired  volume  were  confined  to  the 
Gospel  and  Epistles  of  St.  John,  the  evidence  for 
the  authoritative  character  of  this  moral  precept 
and  its  consequent  binding  force  would  be  super- 
abundant.   It  will  do  no  harm  to  refresh  our  mem- 
ories  by   citing   a   few   of   the    many   pertinent 
passages  to  be  found  therein:    "By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  you  are  my  disciples,  if  you  have 
love  one  for  another.    ...    He  that  loveth  his 
brother  abideth  in  the  light,  and  there  is  no  scan- 
dal in  him.    .    .    .    Whosoever  is  not  just  is  not 
of  God,  nor  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother.    .    .    . 
For  this  is  the  declaration,  which  you  have  heard 
from  the  beginning,  that  you  should  love  one 
another.    .    .    .    We  know  that  we  have  passed 
from  death  to  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren. 
He  that  loveth  not  abideth  in  death.    ...    In 
this  we  have  known  the  charity  of  God,  because 
He  hath  laid  down  His  life  for  us;  and  we  ought  to 
lay    down    our    lives    for    the    brethren.    .    .    . 
Dearly  beloved,  let  us  love  one  another,  for  charity 
is  of  God.    ...    He  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not 
God:  for  God  is  charity.    ...    If  any  man  say, 
I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar. 
For  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother,  whom  he  seeth, 
how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  seeth  not?    .    .    . 
A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you :     That  you 
love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  you  also 
love  one  another.    .    .    .    And  this  is  His  com- 
mandment, that  we  should  believe  in  the  name  of 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ  and  love  one  another,  as  He 
hath  given  commandment  unto  us.    .    .    .    And 


2M>-.^-..VIA>.V.^i 


FRATERNAL  CHARITY   OF  PRIESTS       69 


this  commandment  we  have  from  God,  that  he  who 
loveth  God  love  also  his  brother.  ...  My  little 
children,  let  us  love  not  in  word,  nor  in  tongue,  but 
in  deed  and  in  truth." 

The  reader  who  has  perused  the  foregoing  para- 
graph need  scarcely  be  "reminded  of  St.  Jerome's 
story  about  the  conduct  and  advice  of  the  Beloved 
Disciple  in  his  extreme  old  age.    When  too  infirm 
to  go  to  the  church  unless  when  carried  there,  he 
continually  repeated  to  his  disciples  the  counsel, 
"Children,  love  one  another";  and  when  asked  one 
day  why  he  so  constantly  reiterated  the  same  ad- 
vice, he  replied,  "Because  it  is  the  precept  of  our 
Lord,  and  this  alone  is  sufficient,  if  well  observed." 
That,  lacking  this,  all  else  is  insufficient,  not  only 
for  the  attainment  of  the  perfection  of  one's  state, 
but  even  for  bare  salvation,  is  unquestionable,  as 
is  clear  from  the  writings  of  Apostles  other  than 
St.  John.   With  peculiar  appositeness,  for  instance, 
may  a  priest  repeat  the  words  of  St.  Paul:     "If  I 
speak  wf»     the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and 
have  not  ^narity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass, 
or  a  tinkling  cymbal.    And  if  I  should  have  proph- 
ecy, and  should  know  all  mysteries  and  all  knowl- 
edge, and  if  I  should  have  all  faith  so  that  I  could 
remove  mountains,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am 
nothing.     And  if  I  should  distribute  all  my  goods 
to  feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  should  deliver  my  body 
to  be  burned,  and  have  not  charity,  it  profiteth 
me  nothing."    The  foregoing  texts  are  known  of 
course  to  all  of  us;  they  are  as  familiar  as  house- 
hold w^ords  to  our  ears  and  minds;  but  it  is  quite 
possible  that  we  have  seldom,  if  ever,  made  a 


lanwi^ 


^1 


70 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


specific  personal  application  of  the  principles 
therein  laid  down  to  our  individual  selves.  Ser- 
mons on  brotherly  love  and  the  vices  opposed  to  it 
we  have  no  doubt  preached  often  enough;  but  it 
may  be  that  the  cap  we  skillfully  constructed  for  a 
lay  offender  would  have  fitted  our  own  head  fully 
as  snugly  as  his. 

Considered  in  its  extensive  applicability,  the 
word  "neighbor"  designates  every  human  being, 
without  distinction  of  religion,  race,  age,  sex, 
social  standing,  moral  condition,  or  any  other  cir- 
cumstance such  as  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  may 
constitute  a  line  of  cleavage.  In  Christ  "there  is 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  bond  nor  free." 
Here  on  earth  our  love  is  due  to  as  apparently 
heterogeneous  a  mass  of  humanity  as  St.  John 
describes  in  the  Apocalypse,  "a  great  multitude 
which  no  man  could  number,  of  all  nations  and 
tribes  and  peoples  and  tongues,  standing  before 
the  throne  and  in  sight  of  the  Lamb."  ft  goes 
without  saying,  however,  that  while  the  bond  of 
charity  should  unite  us  to  all  these,  the  union  with 
some  may  legitimately  be  closer  than  with  others. 
There  is  no  transgression  of  the  divine  law  in  our 
loving  relatives  more  than  friends,  friends  more 
than  acquaintances,  acquaintances  more  than 
strangers,  fellow-countrymen  more  than  foreign- 
ers, or  those  of  the  household  of  the  faith  more 
than  those  outside  the  fold.  On  the  contrary,  the 
nearer  we  are  brought  to  individuals  or  classes  by 
natural  or  conventional  ties,  by  similarity  of  occu- 
pation or  habitual  association,  the  greater  the  debt 
of  charity  we  owe  them.    In  so  far  as  the  clergj' 


»gi  ■ .  A.  ,  '.''    ''r-^Sa  -  -^  J>1- Ji,      ,1  '.'■'  *   . ,  ■■.  .-^  .  Ll'JUfcJU.Hilj.i  . 


FRATERNAL   CHARITY   OF   PRIESTS       71 

are  specifically  concerned,  there  would  seem  to  be 
exceptional  reason  why  the  bonds  of  charity  unit- 
ing them  should  be  notably  stronger  than  those 
which  join  together  either  the  faithful  generally, 
or,  more  particularly,  the  members  of  any  other 
profession.  By  the  ver>'  terms  of  their  ordination 
priests  have  entered  into  a  more  intimate  alliance 
one  with  another  than  exists  among  lawyers,  doc- 
tors, business  men,  authors,  or  artists.  Enlisted  in 
the  most  solemn  possible  manner  in  the  army  of 
Jesus  Christ,  beneath  the  royal  standard  of  His 
Cross,  they  are  in  a  very  special  sense  brothers-in- 
arms, and  reciprocally  owe  to  one  another  such 
genuine  affection  as  naturally  exists  among 
brothers  in  blood.  To  a  doctor  of  the  law,  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  world  at  large,  Christ  said, 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself";  on  His 
priests  at  the  Last  Supper  He  laid  the  burden  of  a 
more  intensive  affection:  "The  precept  which  I 
give  you  is,  that  you  love  one  another  as  I  have 
loved  you." 

To  come  at  length  to  the  everyday  actualities 
of  sacerdotal  life:  the  law  of  fraternal  charity 
calls  for  genuinely  cordial  relations  between  a  pas- 
tor and  his  curates.  Of  all  the  residences  in  the 
parish,  the  rectoi  y,  while  necessarily  lacking  both 
the  figures  and  the  affections  primarily  associated 
with  the  idea  of  the  Christian  family — father, 
mother,  children,  with  their  concomitant  condi- 
tions of  conjugal,  parental,  and  filial  love — should 
none  iht  less  be  the  one  house  in  which  more  than 
in  any  other  liabitually  abide  the  peace,  concord, 
mutual  consideration,  and  bearing-one-another's- 


^semmmm 


72 


SACERDOTAL   SAPL .  J ARDS 


burden  spirit  that  characterize  and  bless  the  true 
Christian  home.  The  ideal  pastor  stands  to  his 
curate  in  the  relation  of  father  or  big  brother 
according  as  the  disparity  of  their  respective  years 
is  great  or  small;  and  he  is  sincerely  desirous  that 
the  younger  man  shall  look  upon  him,  not  as  an 
exacting  and  unsympathetic  taskmaster,  but  as  a 
kind-hearted  and  considerate  senior  partner  in  the 
business  of  ministering  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the 
people.  Without  at  all  sacrificing  t:  h  .ihority  or 
the  rights  that  are  really  his,  he  mai  v  h  ,'u  iixrade 
of  that  authority  and  is  not  fond  of  /  ph'i^izing 
the  rights,  especially  when  the  curate  (  .invests  no 
set  purpose  of  infringing  thereon.  Wiin  liu;  larger 
measure  of  wisdom  or  common  sense  that  usually 
comes  with  advancing  years,  he  knows  how  to  tol- 
erate youthful  exuberance  of  spirits,  and  can  make 
due  allowance  for  the  occasional  mistakes  that 
arise  from  impulsive  energy  or  generous,  if  impru- 
dent, zeal.  While  mindful  of  his  duly  properly 
to  train  his  assistant  in  the  various  works  of  the 
ministry,  he  relies  for  the  success  of  that  training 
more  on  the  example  he  sots  than  on  the  orders  he 
gives;  and  even  when  reproof  becomes  imperative 
administers  it  calmly,  charitably,  and  in  private, 
not  passionately,  harshly,  and  before  others. 

As  for  the  jun'or  partner  in  the  clerical  firm, 
the  qualities  c.i  xiftues  which  congruously  char- 
acterize his  I'  '  rcourse  with  his  ecclesiastical 
superior  are,  among  others,  interior  reverriice 
externalized  in  outward  marks  of  unfailinj;  re- 
spect; obedience  promptly  rendered  to  express 
commands  and  even  implied  wishes;  cordial  coop- 


FRATERNAL   CHARITY   OF   PRIESTS       73 

eration  in  such  parochial  activiUei*  as  solicit  the 
united  forces  of  pastor  and  assistant;  ready  defer- 
ence in  unimportant  matters,  and  in  the  minor 
details  of  important  ones,  to  the  judgment  of  his 
elder;  habitual  willingness  to  oblige;  a  disposition 
to  do  more  rather  than  less  than  his  share  of  the 
harder  sort  of  parish  work;  good  natured  accept- 
ance of  such  little  jars  and  trills  as  are  occasion- 
ally inevitable  in  the  domestic  economy  of  the 
best-managed  household;  and  a  cheerful  optimism 
that  laughs  away  small  worries,  overrides  greater 
ones,  and  floods  the  rectory  with  moral  sunshine. 

One  consideration  which  may  well  facilitate  the 
offices  of  fraternal  cha.i'y  by  incre\sing  the  es- 
teem entertained  for  his  pastor  by  a  curate,  espe- 
cially if  the  latter  be  a  brilliant  scholar  and  the 
former  not  overweighted  with  the  learning  of  the 
books,  is  that  the  pastor  is  possessed  of  a  scienct; 
not  to  be  acquired  by  the  keenest  intellects  in  the 
most  efficient  seminaries  or  most  famous  universi- 
ties, a  science  unattainable  by  youth,  mastered  only 
in  the  school  of  the  world  where  time  and  events 
p.re  the  preceptors,  and  one   the  acquisition   of 
which  entitles  ev^n  the  dullest  pastor  to  the  uncon- 
ferred  degree,  Expirimtiae  Doctor.    "When  I  was 
young,"  said  Johp  Wesley  in  his  later  life,  "I  was 
sure  of  everything;  in  a  few  years,  having  been 
mistaken  a  thousand  times,  I  was  not  half  so  sure 
of  most  things  as  I  was  before;  at  present  I  am 
hardly  sure  of  anything  but  what  God  has  revealed 
to  me."    We  suspect  that  many  u  gray-haired  pas- 
tor of  our  day  is  tempted  to  say  of  his  quasi- 
omniscient  assistant,  in  a  paraphrase  of  Sydney 


.*;j.'/*Tr:'if*3L"-:!wew»'  •is'-yrf- 


74 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


If 


Smith  on  Macaulay,  "I'd  like  to  be  as  cocksure  of 
anything  as  my  curate  is  of  everything." 

Next  in  warmth  and  strength  to  the  fraternal 
charity  displayed  towards  their  housemates,  is  that 
which  priests  owe  to  the  clerics  of  their  neighbor- 
hood, the  pastors  and  curates  of  adjacent  parishes, 
fellow-members  of  their  conference-circle,  and  the 
clergy  of  their  diocese  as  a  whole.  The  circum- 
stance that  one  meets  such  brethren  less  frequently 
than  is  the  case  with  the  members  of  one's  own 
household  sometimes  renders  the  observance  of 
the  rules  governing  brotherly  love  comparatively 
easy.  Meeting  a  man  only  occasionally,  and  for  a 
relatively  brief  period,  is  quite  a  different  matter 
from  living  with  him  day  after  day  and  month 
after  month,  especially  if  his  defects  of  character 
are  (like  our  own,  no  doubt)  neither  few  nor  neg- 
ligible. Even  the  most  cross-grained,  irritable, 
disputatious,  or  domineering  cleric  that  ever  mer- 
ited the  rebuke  of  Ecclesiasticus,  "Be  not  as  a  lion 
in  thy  house,  terrifying  them  of  thy  household,  and 
oppressing  them  that  are  under  thee,"  is  generally 
on  his  good  behavior  when  he  is  visited  by  brother 
priests,  or  when  he  in  turn  visits  them.  His  nor- 
mal self  is  for  the  nonce  subdued,  and  he  appears 
in  the  guise,  or  disguise,  of  an  agreeable  com- 
panion. 

Geniality,  sympathetic  interest,  willingness  to 
render  service,  cordial  messages  of  congratulation 
or  condolence  on  occasions  of  joy  or  sorrow,  at- 
tendance at  special  functions  in  their  church  or 
school,  appreciative  recognition  of  favors  received, 
recreative  exercise  taken  together — these  are  some 


*«■ 


FRATERNAL  CHARITY   OF   PRIESTS       75 


of  the  usual  manifestations  of  the  fraternal  charity 
we  entertain  for  brother  priests  in  our  neighbor- 
hood, and  such  acts  are  frequently  of  more  impor- 
tance to  their,  and  our  own,  moral  welfare  than  is 
always  recognized  by  them  or  ourselves.  As  for 
our  diocesan  confreres  in  general,  for  the  more 
numerous  clergy  of  our  State,  and  for  the  whole 
body  of  the  priesthood  in  our  country,  our  charity 
takes  the  form  of  unswerving  loyalty  to  them  in 
preference  to  the  clerics  of  any  other  diocese.  State, 
or  country  whatever. 

It  would  probably  be  superfluous  to  insist  at 
any  length  on  the  point  that  it  is  not  enough  to 
have  any  kind  of  liking,  affection,  or  fondness  for 
our  brother  priests:  our  love  for  Ihem  must  be  true 
charity.    "If  we  love  our  neighbor,"  says  St.  Fran- 
cis de  Sales,  "because  he  does  us  good,  that  is, 
because  he  loves  us  and  brings  us  some  advantage, 
honor,  or  pleasure,  this  is  what  we  call  a  love  of 
complacency,  and  is  common  to  us  with  the  ani- 
mals.   If  we  love  him  for  any  good  that  we  see  in 
him,  that  is,  on  account  of  beauty,  style,  amiability, 
or  attractiveness,  this  is  the  love  of  friendship 
which  we  share  with  the  heathens.    .    .    .    The 
true  love  which  alone  is  meritorious  and  lasting,  is 
that  which  arises  from  the  charity  which  leads  us 
to  love  our  neighbor  in  God  and  for  Ciod;  that  is, 
because  it  pleases  God,  or  because  he  is  dear  to 
God,  or  because  God  dwells  in  him,  or  that  it  may 
be  so."    Needless  to  say,  St.  Francis  does  not  con- 
demn friendship,  or  that  natural  attraction   we 
feel  for  those  whose  tastes  and  inclinations  are 
similar  to  our  own.     lie  follows  up  the  foregoing 


76 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


statements  with  the  remark:  'There  is,  however, 
no  harm  in  loving  him  also  for  any  honorable  rea- 
son, provided  we  love  him  more  for  God's  sake 
than  for  any  other  cause." 

Without  at  all  impeaching  the  soundness  of 
St.  Francis*  doctrine,  a  cleric  of  two  or  three 
decades*  experience  in  sacerdotal  environments 
might  perhaps  be  excused  for  expressing  a  wish 
that,  for  any  sake,  priests  should  love  one  another 
better  than  they  generally  do.  The  love  of  purely 
human  friendship,  or  even  that  of  complacency, 
defective  as  it  is,  would  seem  to  be  immeasurably 
superior  to  either  the  mere  negation  of  charity, 
absolute  indifference,  or,  still  more,  the  active 
opposite  of  charity,  dislike,  aversion,  hatred.  Are 
these  terms  too  strong  to  associate  with  members 
of  the  Christian  priesthood,  professed  followers 
and  imitators  of  the  loving  and  love-ordaining 
Redeemer?  Read  this  passage  from  "Rules  for  the 
Pastors  of  Souls,'*  and  you  will  not  think  so: 
"Many  children  of  Holy  Clmrch  have  become  luke- 
warm and  indifferent,  or  have  even  lost  their  faith, 
because  they  could  not  understand  how  priests 
could  daily  approach  the  altar  to  celebrate  the 
most  holy  mysteries  and  at  the  same  time  perse- 
cute one  another  with  the  bitterest  hatred  and 
animosity,  and  that  for  years  together!  Oh,  the 
blindness  and  hard-heartedness  of  such  priests!" 
A  rare  case,  it  may  be,  and  painted  perhaps  in 
colors  unduly  dark;  but  one  that  differs  in  degree 
only  from  many  another  case  with  which  most 
readers  of  this  page  cannot  but  be  familiar.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  our  exemplifi- 


FRATERNAL   CHARITY   OF   PRIESTS       77 


cation  of  fraternal  charity,  in  little  things  almost 
habitually,  and  occasionally  in  bigger  things  as 
well,  fails  to  square  with  tho  precepts  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  resultant  theories  of  the  saints.  We  vio- 
late charity  in  a  number  of  ways,  and  most  fre- 
quently perhaps  by  detraction  and  by  resenting 
injuries.  Let  a  word  or  two  be  said  of  each  such 
transgression  of  the  law  of  love. 

If,  in  the  lengthy  catalogue  of  social  vices,  there 
is  one  that  God  threatens  with  dire  punishments, 
one  that  is  repeatedly  anathematized  in  Holy  Writ, 
one  that  theologians  and  spiritual  writers  never 
tire  of  denouncing,  one  that  the  moralists  of  all 
ages  and  all  countries,  pagan  and  Christian,  have 
united  in  branding  as  an  enormous  evil,  that  vice 
is  detraction,  or  the  defamation  of  our  neighbor. 
This  vigorous  and  continuous  denunciation  is  of 
course  due  to  the  gravity  of  the  vice  in  itself  and 
the  deplorable  consequences  that  almost  invariably 
flow  therefrom.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  uni- 
versal condemnation,  there  is  probably  no  sin  so 
common,  no  vice  so  prevalent  in  all  classes  of 
society,  not  excepting  the  priesthood,  as  this  same 
detraction.  The  prevalence  is  doubtless  due  to  the 
extreme  facility  with  which  we  commit  the  evil 
and  to  a  certain  impression  as  widespread  (among 
the  laity  at  least)  as  it  is  erroneous,  that  detraction 
is  not  a  sin,  or,  anyway,  is  but  a  very  light  one. 
The  specious  argument  that  what  every  one  does 
cannot  be  so  very  wrong  is  brought  into  requisi- 
tion to  plead  the  cause  of  our  vitiated  inclinations, 
and  the  sanction  of  a  corrupt  world  is  employed  as 
a  gag  to  stifle  the  cries  of  our  protesting  conscience. 


78 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


No  priest  needs  telling  that  detraction  is,  in  its 
nature,  a  grievous  sin,  a  "sin  unto  death."  SL  Paul 
classes  it  with  those  crimes  whose  perpetrators  are 
excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  Heaven:  he  ranks 
detractors  with  adulterers,  idolaters,  and  thieves. 
And  his  classification  is  borne  out  by  many  a  text 
of  Holy  Writ.  "Detractors  are  odious  in  the  sight 
of  God.  .  .  .  The  slanderer  is  an  abomination 
to  men  and  an  enemy  to  God.  .  .  .  The  evil- 
whisperer  and  the  double-tongued  is  accursed  for 
he  hath  troubled  many  that  were  at  peace.  .  .  . 
The  calumniator  shall  never  see  God.  .  .  .  God 
detesteth  the  evil  speaker  in  His  soul." 

To  say  that  these  texts  apply  only  to  such 
detractors  as,  with  malice  prepense,  utter  cal- 
umnies and  slanders  calculated  to  do  grievous 
injury  to  their  neighbor,  and  are  quite  irrelevant 
so  far  as  the  ordinary  uncharitable  talk  of  the 
clergy  is  concerned,  is  to  enunciate,  if  not  an  out- 
and-out  sophism,  at  least  a  near-fallacy.  No  theo- 
logian will  deny  that  the  sin  admits  of  levity  of 
matter;  but  most  men  of  experience  will  agree 
that  it  is  not  always  easy  to  determine,  when  there 
is  question  of  evil  speaking,  just  where  is  the 
boundary-line  dividing  the  light  from  the  grievous; 
and  there  is  little  if  any  exaggeration  in  saying  that 
the  line  is  frequently  overstepped  by  many  who, 
far  from  imagining  that  they  have  entered  the 
region  of  mortal  sin,  scarcely  fancy  that  they  have 
traveled  outside  the  territory  of  imperfections.  It 
is  proverbial  that  no  man  is  a  fair  judge  in  his  own 
cause,  and  it  is  accordingly  quite  possible  that  a 
priest,  arraigning  himself  at  the  bar  of  conscience 


I 


FRATERNAL  CHARITY   OF   PRIESTS       79 

for  the  sin  of  uncharitable  talk,  may  show  himself 
notably  more  lenient  than  he  appears  to  penitents 
accusing  themselves  of  the  same  sin  in  the  confes- 
sional. 

Our  present  discussion  of  the  subject  recalls  an 
incident  which,  occurring  as  it  did  a  good  many 
years  ago,  impressed  us  in  our  salad  days  with  the 
distorted  views  of  not  a  few  men  concerniug  the 
comparative  gravity  of  different  vices.  During  a 
desultory  conversation  among  several  clerics  gath- 
ered in  the  writer's  room  one  day,  somebody 
broached  this  topic  of  the  fraternal  charity  of 
priests.  "A  non-existent  virtue,"  said  the  wag  of 
the  party.  "Seriously,  though,"  said  Father  B.,  a 
thoroughly  exemplary  pastor  whose  only  failing 
was  a  naive  and  harmless  egotism,  really  inherited 
rather  than  acquired,  "seriously,  though,  is  it  not 
strange  that  so  many  priests  should  be  uncharita- 
ble? Now,  look  at  me.  You  never  hear  me  making 
unkind  remarks  about  my  brother  priests." — 
"For  a  darn  good  reason,"  exclaimed  the  wag 
aforesaid;  "you're  always  talking  about  yourself." 
This  sally  was  greeted  with  a  general  laugh,  and 
Father  B.  was  rather  put  out  of  countenance;  and 
yet,  as  between  him  and  a  detracting  cleric,  Father 
B.'s  status  was  clearly  prefcrible.  Vanity,  dis- 
played in  a  love  of  praise  and  a  fondness  for 
speaking  of  ourselves,  is  doubtless  sinful,  but 
assuredly  not  so  grievously  so  as  slander  or  cal- 
umny. The  vain  man  may  be  ridiculous,  but 
"detractors  are  odious  in  the  sight  of  God."  More- 
over, many  a  man's  freedom  from  vanity  is  merely 
the  result  of  his  pride,  a  much  greater  evil.    His 


nBHm 


80 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


self-contained  saUsfaction  with  the  excellence  of 
what  he  is  or  has  leads  him  to  be  indifferent  to,  if 
not  to  despise,  the  opinions  entertained  of  him  by 
others.    One  may  easily  be  too  proud  to  be  vain. 

According  to  Ecclesiasticus,  "pride  is  the  begin- 
ning of  all  sin,"  and  it  requires  no  exceptional 
power  of  analysis  or  keenness  of  interior  virion  to 
recognize  it  as  the  specific  root  of  all  sins  against 
fraternal    charity— suspicions,    rash    judgments, 
unkindness,  harshness,   slander,  calumny,   envy, 
jealousy,  haired,  vindictivcne-s,  revenge,  and  sim- 
ilar passions.    What,  for  ini  i.  nee,  but  pride,  inor- 
dinate   esteem    of    ourselves,    overweening    self- 
conceit,  auto-intoxication  of  the  intellect,  is  at  the 
bottom  of  our  drawing  for  our  special  friends  so 
unflattering  a  character,  or  caricature,  of  "that 
money-grabbing  old  crank,"  our  pastor;  "that  ef- 
feminate   young    dude,"    our    curate;    or    "that 
chuckle-headed  ass  and  insufferable  bore,"  our 
neighbor  of  the  next  parish?    Is  it  merely  to  pass 
away  the  time  and  to  entertain  our  auditors  that 
we  exaggerate  his  faults,  minimize  his  virtues,  put 
the  worst  possible  construction  on   his   actions, 
recount  with  gusto  any  incident  that  tells  to  his 
disadvantage,  and  suggest  that  unworthy  or  ques- 
tionable motives  underlie  his  habitual  conduct? 
Not  at  all.    Our  detraction  springs  in  reality  from 
our  wounded  self-love,  from  a  secret  sentiment  of 
jealousy  or  envy  that  we  are  ashamed  to  acknowl- 
edge even  to  ourselves,  from  a  latent  spite  we  bear 
because  of  some  real  or  fancied  grievance,  or,  con- 
ceivably, from  a  purely  malicious  desire  to  lower 
him  in  the  estimation  of  others. 


FRATERNAL   CHARITY    OF   PRIESTS       81 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  remind  priests  of  the 
utter  puerility  of  the  specious  argument  with  which 
lay  detractors  often  seek  to  justify  or  excuse  their 
evil  speaking:    "Well,  after  all,  1  told  only  the 
simple    truth."     Damaging    truth    told    of    one's 
neighbor  without  reason  or  necessity  is  slander, 
and  its  retailer  is  "an  abomination  to  men  and  an 
enemy  to  God."    Nor  need  any  cleric  be  reminded 
that,  in  the  case  of  uncharitable  talk,  there  is  from 
the  true  to  the  false,  from  slander  to  calumny,  but 
a  single  step — and  a  step  so  slippery  that  the  aver- 
age evil-whisperer  is  very  liable  to  take  it.    Who 
does  not  know  that  a  single  grain  of  fact  hurtful 
to  a  priestly  reputation  will  yield  a  quicker  and 
more  abundant  crop   than  any  other  seed  ever 
planted?    Who  has  not  seen  a  slight  defect  become 
transformed  in  the  mouth  of  the  detrac*   .   to  a 
grievous  fault,  and.  passing  from  one  to  another, 
grow  to  an  enormous  crime?    Where  is  the  priest 
so  singularly  blessed  that  he  has  altogether  escaped 
the  priestly  gossip's  tongue?    Where  the  diocese 
so  phenomenally  charitable  that  it  cannot  furnish 
at  least  one  or  two  clerical  backbiters  who  are 
continually  at  work  changing  pigmies  into  giants 
and  molehills  into  mountains?    When  shall  we 
priests  take  to  heart,  ourselves,  the  lesson  from 
Ecclesiasticus  which  we  nre  so  fond  of  impressing 
upon  our  people :  "Hast  thou  heard  a  word  against 
thy  neighbor?   Let  it  die  within  thoc,  trusting  that 
it  will  not  burst  thee."    Nor  is  it  enough  to  shun 
active  detraction:  fraternal  charity  demands  that 
we  avoid  passive  participation   therein   as  well. 
Talkers  will  refrain  from  evil-speaking  only  when 
listeners  refrain  from  cvil-hcaring. 


82 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Most  arduous  of  all  the  forms  of  that  hrolhorly 
love  which  is  essential  to  the  spiritual  well-being 
of  Christians  generally,  and  of  priests  in  particu- 
lar, is  the  forgiving  of  injuries,  the  manifestation 
of  good-will  and  kindness  towards  those  who  have 
done  us  harm,  who  have  been,  or  perhaps  actually 
are,  our  secret  or  avowed  enemies.  Herein,  as  in 
no  other  circumstances,  is  evidenced  the  truth  of 
that  testing  text,  "By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
you  are  my  disciples,  if  you  have  love  one  for 
another."  The  express  command,  "Love  your  ene- 
mies," bids  human  nature  overcome  its  innermost 
self,  and  might  well  be  considered  impossible  of 
execution  did  it  not  emanate  from  Him  who  prayed 
for  His  crucifiers,  "Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do." 

Now,  while  self-deceit,  even  among  the  minis- 
ters of  the  altar,  is  as  easy  as  breathing,  as  common 
as  air,  it  must  be  well-nigh  impracticable  for  a 
priest  of  God  to  delude  himself  as  to  the  absolute 
necessity  of  his  obeying  the  precept:  "Love  your 
enemies;  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you;  pray  for 
them  that  persecute  and  calumniate  you."  There 
is  no  possible  evading  the  patent  sense  and  import 
of  this  declaration  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  "If  there- 
fore thou  oflfervst  thy  gift  at  the  altar,  and  there 
Shalt  remember  that  thy  brother  hath  anything 
against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar, 
and  first  go  to  be  reconciled  to  thy  brot'.icr;  and 
then  come  and  offer  thy  gift."  The  ver>'  wording 
rT  the  text  clothes  it  with  peculiar  appositeness  to 
the  men  who  ascend  the  altar  every  morning;  and 
hence  they,  ^bove  and  beyond  all  other  imitators 


TfU 


mgjmm 


FRATERNAL   CHARITY   OF   PRIKSTS       83 


of  Christ,  are  inexcusable  if  they  fail  to  observe 
the  precept. 

Delusion  as.  to  the  meaning  and  intent  of  the 
law  is,  as  has  been  sold,  practically  impossible  in 
the  case  of  pries's;  but  d'  iasion  as  to  one's  fulfill- 
ment of  the  law  is  not  only  a 'together  possible  but 
altogether  conimcn  niu   rq  Christians  in  the  world, 
and  is  not  suflicieni'    -  '  c  even  among  the  servants 
of  the  sanctuary.    Tlie  assertion,  "Oh,  yes;  I  for- 
yrive  him;  I  don't  wish  him  any  evil,"  is  entirely  in 
place  on  the  lips  of  a  priest,  and  no  doubt  sounds 
well;  but  if  the  speaker  nevertheless  preserves  in 
his  inmost  heart  an  unconquered  feeling  of  resent- 
ment or  haired,  an  imperfectly  repressed  desire  for 
revenge,  an  unmistakable  disposition  to  rejoice 
over  the  humiliation  or  downfall  of  his  enemy,  no 
protestation  of  forgiveness,  be  it  ever  so  emphatic, 
will  alter  the  fact  that  he  is  really  obeying,  ncl  the 
law  of  Christ,  "Love  your  enemies,"  but  the  pre- 
Christian  lex  laUonis.  "an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a 
tooth  for  a  tooth." 

To  declare,  as  some  clerics  have  been  known  to 
do,  that  they  forgive  those  ^ho  have  injured  them 
but  can  never  forget  the  injur;>-s.  is  of»en  to  falsify 
their  own  stalenunts.  True,  the  law  of  fraternal 
charity  does  not  prescribe  the  fo.'^etting  of  ^^]u- 
lies,  their  absolute  erasu'  e  from  the  tablets  of  the 
memory,  and  such  forgetting  iiuiy  indeed  be  quite 
beyond  one's  power  to  effect,  in  which  case  there  is 
clearly  no  violation  of  charity ;  but  the  emphasized 
declaration  that  we  will  never  forget  what  our  ene- 
mies have  done  to  us  may  easily  enough  mean  that 
our  asserted  forgiveness  is  merely  a  shallow  pre- 


84 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tense.    "Let  us  love,  not  in  word  and  in  tongue,  but 
in  deed  and  in  truth." 

As  a  fitting  conclusion  to  a  discussion  of  the 
brotherly  love  that  should  characterize  all  clerics, 
let  a  brief  word  be  said  in  behalf  of  those  priests 
who  have  most  need  of  charity's  tender  and  be- 
neficent offices,  those  who  have  been  overtaken  by 
misfortunes  from  which  nothing  but  God's  mercy 
has  preserved  many  of  ourselves,  those  who  have 
fallen  by  the  wayside.  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  tells  us 
our  duty  in  their  regard:  "Let  us  endeavor  to 
show  ourselves  full  of  compassion  towards  the 
faulty  and  the  sinful.  If  we  do  not  show  compas- 
sion and  charity  to  these,  we  do  not  deserve  to  have 
God  show  it  towards  us."  The  author  will  perhaps 
be  pardoned  for  supplementing  St.  Vincent's  coun- 
sel with  some  cognate  advice  written  in  his  younger 
days  in  sonnet  form  and  published  under  the  title, 
"Judge  Not": 

Be  not  alert  to  sound  the  cry  of  shame 

Shouldst  thou  behold  a  brother  falling  low : 
His  battle's  ebb  thou  seest,  but  its  flow— 

The  brave  repulse,  that  heroes'  praise  mipht  claim, 

Of  banded  foes  who  fierce  against  him  came, 
His  prowess  long  sustained,  his  yielding  slow— 
Till  this  thou  knowest,  as  thou  canst  not  know, 

Haste  not  to  brand  with  obloquy  his  fame. 

"Ji:dge  not,"  hath  said  the  Sovereign  .Tudpe  of  all, 
Whose  eye  alone  not  purblind  is  nor  dim,— 

Perchance  a  pwifter  than  f!iy  brother's  fall 

Hadst  thou  received  from  those  who  vanquished  him : 

He  coped,  it  may  be,  with  unequal  odds,— 

Be  thine  to  pity ;  but  to  judge  him,  God's. 


RUBRICAL  ODDS  AND  ENDS 

QUERIES  AT  A  CONFERENCE 

Trifles  make  perfection,  but  perfection  itself  is  no  trifle.— 
Michael  Angela. 

He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful  also  In 
ttiat  which  i»  greater. — Luke:  xvi,  10. 

According  to  a  prevalent  sentiment,  we  should  do  away  with 
the  distinction  between  the  preceptive  rubrics  (those  which  bind 
under  pain  of  sin,  mortal  or  venial  according  to  the  matter)  and 
directive  rubrics  (those  which  are  not  binding  in  themselves,  but 
state  what  is  to  be  done  in  the  form  of  an  instruction  or  counsel). 

F  Cabrol,  O.  8.  B.,  in  Cath.  KnoycL 


THE  last  quarterly  ecclesiastical  conference  for 
the  priests  of  the  Clarenceville  district  of  St. 
Egbert  diocese  had  been  looked  forward  to  with 
unwonted  interest  by  pastors  and  curates,  and  in 
consequence  there  was  a  full  attendance  of  clerics 
when  the  session  opened  in  the  Parish  Hall  of  the 
presiding  Dean,  Father  Patterson.    The  prelim- 
inary formalities  having  been  gone  through  with, 
the  Dean  made  a  statement  sufficiently  explana- 
tory of  both  the  unusual  interest  and  the  lack  of 
absentees.    "It  will  be  within  the  easy  recollection 
of  all  of  you,  reverend  fathers,"  he  said,  "that  at 
our  September  conference  we  decided  to  make  this 
present  session  something  of  a  novelty  in  the  way 
of  these  clerical  meetings.    It  was  delermined  that, 
instead  of  having  several  papers  read  and  dis- 
cussed, we  should  resolve  ourselves  into  what  may 
be  termed  a  rubrical  quiz-class.    We  all  know  that 
the  average  reader  of  our  excellent  Sacerdotal 

85 


MICROCOrY   RESOIUTION  TiST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


I.I 


!r    14.0 


2.2 
2.0 


^  /APPLIED  IIVMGE     Inc 

^^  1653  East  Main  Street 

S\S  Rochester.  Ne«  York        14609       USA 

^S  (716)   482  -  0300  -  Phone 

^S  (716)   288  -  5989  -  Fo» 


86 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


!ji  i 


I 

1 


Monthly  is  especially  interested  in  its  editor's  an- 
swers to  the  various  queries  propounded  by  his 
numerous  correspondents  as  to  the  correct  prac- 
tice in  some  one  or  other  of  our  multifarious  rites 
and  ceremonies;  and  the  suggestion  that  at  least 
one  of  our  quarterly  conferences  might  laudably 
be  devoted  to  a  similar  purpose  was,  as  you 
remember,  greeted  ^\lth  applause  and  unanimously 
adopted. 

"As  for  our  manner  of  procedure  at  this,  the 
first  session  of  the  kind,  I  think  our  best  plan  will 
be  for  each  member  of  the  conference  to  put  such 
questions  as  he  has  in  mind  or  as  may  be  suggested 
by  cognate  queries  propounded  by  others,  without 
any  special  regard  to  formal  sequence  or  coordina- 
tion.   Fathers  Downey,  Doyle,  and  Harris,  who 
were  appointed  in  September  to  serve  as  a  Bureau 
of  Information  to-day,  are  no  doubt  ready  to  solve 
any  rubrical  problems  submitted  to  them;  and  I, 
for  one,  expect  to  receive  some  interesting  infor- 
mation from  their  answtis  to  our  various  queries. 
So  much  being  said  by  way  of  preamble,  I  now 
declare  the  conference  open  for  business. 
Fr.   Ferguson.    Just   to  start   the   ball   rolling,   1 
should  like  to  ask  something  about  the  correct 
practice   in   genuflecting  when   one   is   giving 
Benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.    I  don't 
know  whether  any  other  member  of  the  confer- 
ence remarked  the  variations  on  that  point  ex- 
emplifieu  during  our  last  annual  retreat,  but 
I  can  vouch  for  it  that  no  two  of  the  four  priests 
who  gave  Benediction  during  that  week  ob- 
served exactly  the  same  ceremonies,    To  begin 


RUBRICAL   ODDS   AND    ENDS 


87 


with,  should  one  genuflection,  or  two,  be  made 
before  the  priest  goes  up  to  the  altar  to  unfold 
the  corporal  and  open  the  tabernacle? 

Fr.  Moran.  That's  an  easy  one,  I  should  say.  He 
makes  only  one,  of  course. 

Fr.  Higgins.  'Tis  yourself  that's  easy.  Father  Dan. 
He  makes  two,  one  before  kneeling  on  the  low- 
est step  of  the  altar  for  a  brief  prayer,  and 
another,  after  thai  prayer,  before  going  up  to 
the  altar.    Isn't  that  so.  Father  Downey? 

Fr.  Downey.  Absolutely  not.  Father  Higgins.  No 
gen?'.flection  is  needed  after  the  brief  prayer 
said  on  his  knees.  The  ceremonials  say :  "The 
priest  rises,  goes  up  to  the  altar,"  etc.,  with  no 
mention  of  a  genuflection  between  the  two  acts. 

Fr.  Ferguson.  And  now,  on  arriving  at  the  altar, 
should  he  genuflect  at  once,  or  only  after  open- 
ing the  tabernacle? 

Fr.  Browning.  At  once,  I  hope;  otherwise,  my 
practice  is  wrong. 

Fr.  Downey.  Your  hope  is  vain,  Fatner  George. 
The  first  genuflection  to  be  made  on  the  plat- 
form of  the  altar  follows  the  unfolding  of  the 
corporal  and  the  opening  of  the  tabernacle. 

Fr.  Ferguson.  And  yet  three  of  the  four  who  gave 
Benediction  during  the  retreat  followed  the 
incorrect  practice  of  Father  Browning. 

Fr.  Crossway.  Well,  even  so;  there  was  no  harm 
done.  Genuflecting  is  an  act  of  devotion,  a  good 
thing,  and  I  fail  to  see  why  the  pious  sentiment 
that  prompts  the  additional  genuflection  should 
be  condemned. 

Dean   Patterson.     You    arc   surely    not    serious. 


'' 


88 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


!', 


r 


¥ 


if 


Father  Crossway.  You  can  scarcely  be  pre- 
sumptuous enough  to  advocate  the  setting  aside 
of  prescribed  rubrics,  or  the  performance  of 
additional  ceremonies,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
individual  priest.  Such  a  principle  would  be 
utterly  subversive  of  all  order  and  harmony  in 
the  celebration  of  Holy  Mass  and  other  divine 
services.  The  pious  sentiments  of  yourself  and 
other  priests  of  your  way  of  thinking  will  be 
best  displayed  by  your  thorough  knowledge  and 
exact  observance  of  all  the  rubrics  which,  as  an 
accredited  minister  of  God's  altar,  you  are  sup- 
posed to  know. 

Fr.  Ferguson.  There's  still  another  genuflection 
about  which  some  variety  of  practice  obtains,  at 
least  in  this  diocese  of  ours.  When  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  is  taken  from  the  tabernacle  and 
placed  in  the  monstrance,  some  priests,  myself 
among  the  number,  genuflect  before  putting  the 
monstrance  in  the  place  of  exposition;  others 
omit  that  genuflection,  contenting  themselves 
with  genuflecting  (as  I  also  do)  after  exposing 
the  Blessed  Sacrament,  before  descending  the 
altar  steps.  Is  the  genuflection  immediately 
before  the  exposition  superfluous? 

Fr.  Downey.  Not  at  all;  it  is  prescribed,  and  its 
omission  is  reprehensible. 

Fr.  Temple.  Since  we  are  on  the  subject,  I  should 
like  to  ask  just  how  the  Benediction  proper,  the 
actual  blessing  of  the  people  with  the  mon- 
strance, should  be  performed.  I  never  enter- 
tained any  doubts  as  to  the  correctness  of  my 
own  method  until  one  evening  last  month  when 


RUBRICAL  ODDS   AND   ENDS 


89 


I  attended  Benediction  in  a  church  at  Port 
Mayne.  The  officiating  priest,  turned  towards 
the  faithful,  raised  the  monstrance  as  high  as 
the  full  reach  of  his  arms  permitted,  lowered  it 
below  his  waist-line,  raised  it  to  the  height  of 
his  breast,  turned  not  only  the  monstrance  but 
his  body  in  a  half  circle  towards  the  Epistle 
side,  swung  around  in  an  almost  complete  circle 
to  the  Gospel  side,  came  back  to  the  center 
facing  the  people,  and  finally  turned  to  the  altar 
by  his  left,  towards  the  Epistle  side.  Is  there 
any  authority  for  making  the  sign  of  the  cross 
with  the  monstrance  in  that  fashion? 

Fr.  Doyle.  No;  I  don'l  think  there  is.  Apart,  how- 
ever, from  his  last  act,  turning  to  the  altar  by 
the  Epistle  side,  a  positive  error,  lis  movements 
were  exaggerations  of  the  correct  rites  rather 
than  out-and-out  mistakes.  The  Baltimore 
Ceremonial  is  sufficiently  explicit  on  the  sub- 
ject. After  stating  that  the  priest,  having  cov- 
ered his  hands  with  the  extremities  of  the  veil, 
takes  hold  of  the  monstrance  at  the  highest  part 
of  its  foot  with  his  right  hand,  and  at  the  lowest 
with  his  left,  it  continues:  "Then  he  turns  fo 
his  right  on  the  Epistle  side  towards  the  people, 
raises  the  monstrance  as  high  as  his  eyes,  brings 
it  down  lower  than  his  breast,  then  raises  it  in 
a  straight  line  as  high  as  his  breast,  afterwards 
brings  it  to  his  left  shoulder,  and  completes  the 
circle,  turning  himself  to  the  altar  to  his  right, 
on  the  Gospel  side." 

Fr.  Ferguson.  Pardon  me.  Father  Doyle,  but  is 
there  not  authority  for  one  variation  from  that 


90 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


form?    A  good  many  priests,  after  turning  the 
monstrance  from  the  left  shoulder  to  the  riglit 
one,  bring  it  back  in  front  of  the  breast  before 
completing  the  circle  by  turning  to  the  altar  on 
the  Gospel  side;  and  I  fancy  they  have  the  sanc- 
tion of  some  rubricists  for  the  practice. 
Fr.    Doyle.    You    are    quite    right;    they    have. 
Wapelhorst  says  that  the  movement  may  be 
completed  as  described  in  the  Baltimore  Cere- 
monial, "vel  potest  ostensorium  a  dextro  rursus 
reducere  ante  pectus  ibique  aliquantulum  sis- 
tere,  tunc  gyrum  perficiens  super  Altare  coUo- 
care."    And  in  support  of  his  contention  he 
cites  a  decree  of  the  Sacred  Congregation  of 
'\ites. 

Fr.  Moran.  Before  we  finish  with  Benediction, 
will  some  member  of  our  Bureau  of  Informa- 
tion kindly  inform  me  whether  there  is  any  one 
definitely  prescribed  method  of  incensing,  any 
exclusively  correct  way  of  swinging  the  censer? 
So  far  as  my  observation  has  gone,  there  is  per- 
haps less  uniformity  with  regard  to  that  act 
than  respecting  most  other  of  our  doings  at  the 
altar. 

Fr.  Harris.  Well,  if  you  ask  me,  I  must  say  that 
I  have  read  more  directions  about  how  not  to 
incense  than  about  the  way  to  do  it  properly. 
For  the  incensation  of  the  sacred  offerings,  the 
cross,  and  the  altar  at  High  Mass,  there  are  of 
couree  detailed  instructions  in  the  various  cere- 
monials, with  accompanying  plates  to  lend  ad- 
ditional clarity  to  the  text;  but  not  all  rubricists 
tell  us  just  how   we  should   manipulate   the 


RUBRICAL   ODDS    AND    ENDS 


91 


censer  at  Benediction.  Wapelhorst  states  that 
we  should  swing  the  cnser,  not  six  or  nine 
times,  but  only  thrice,  with  a  slow  movement, 
and  with  the  briefest  of  pauses  after  each  swing; 
but,  so  far  as  I  know,  he  does  not  describe  the 
process  by  which  the  swing,  or  throw,  of  the 
censer  is  effected.  The  Baltimore  Ceremonial 
is  more  specific.  In  a  footnote  to  its  article  on 
the  functions  of  the  censer-bearer,  it  explains 
the  manner  of  incensing  practiced  in  Rome  and 
throughout  Italy,  "in  well-regulated  churches." 
While  the  instructions  concern  the  censer- 
bearer  in  particular,  I  take  it  that  they  apply 
equally  to  all  who  do  the  incensing — among 
others,  to  the  priest  incensing  the  Blessed  Sac- 
rament at  Benediction.  Let  me  quote:  "To 
incense  in  a  proper  manner,  having  lowered  the 
cover  of  the  censer,  he  takes  the  top  of  the 
chains  in  his  left  hand,  and  brings  it  to  his 
breast;  with  the  fingers  of  his  right  hand  he 
takes  the  chains  close  to  the  cover  and  brings 
it  as  high  as  his  eyes;  then  he  lowers  it,  and 
stretches  his  arm  while  he  raises  it  again 
towards  the  one  whom  he  is  incensing,  causing 
the  censer  to  swing  forward ;  and  then  lowers  it 
again  towards  himself.  He  will  repeat  the  same 
ji  often  as  he  is  to  give  throws,  or  swings." 
Fr.  Temple.  That  may  be  the  Roman  manner,  but 
'tis  not  the  French  one,  or  at  least  not  the  man- 
ner described  in  a  French  ceremonial  we  used 
in  my  time  at  Laval.  We  were  told  to  place 
the  left  hand  holding  the  top  of  the  chains  on 
the  breast,  to  raise  the  censer  with  the  right 


M 


92 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


hand  to  a  level  with  the  right  shoulder,  and 
then  give  three  horizontal  swings  towards  the 
person  or  object  being  honored. 
Fr.  Downey.    Yes,  I  have  seen  that  method  in 
practice,  and  I  confess  that  it  impressed  me  as 
being  rather  graceful  than  otherwise;  but  per- 
haps we  had  better  conform  to  the  style  just  de- 
scribed by  Father  Harris.    While  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  strictly  binding,  hard  and  fast 
way  prescribed  for  swinging  the  censer,  still 
there  are  two  faults  pretty  generally  condemned 
most  liturgical  writers  of  my  acquaintance, 
is  the  absence  of  swinging,  properly  so 
.ailed.    To  hold  the  top  of  the  chains  at  one's 
})reast  and  simply  raise  the  censer  to  the  level 
of  the  eyes,  hold  it  there  a  moment,  and  lower  it, 
repeating  these  movements  a  second  and  a  third 
time— that  may  appear  reveren*  and  graceful 
enough,  but  it  is  not  rubrical;  it  lacks  the  swing 
or  throw.    The  other  mistake  is  one  of  excess. 
It  consists  in  making  each  of  the  prescribed 
three  swings  a  double  or  a  triple  one,  throwing 
the  censer  outward  and  upward  with  a  one-twc, 
or  a  one-two-three,  movement,  thus  producing 
the  six  or  nine  swings  condemned  by  Wapel- 
horst. 
Fr.  Crossway  (in  a  loud  aside  to  Fr.  Moran). 

Strange  all  this  diflference  should  be 
'Twixt  Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee, 


Fr.  Downey.  Perhaps  the  present  is  as  opporl  me 
a  moment  as  I  am  likely  to  secure  for  a  remark 
or  two     jt  irrelevant  to  this  afternoon's  pro- 


RUBRICAL   ODDS   AND    ENDS 


93 


ceedings,  and  apparently  not  uncalled  for  in 
this  gathering  of  clerics.  It  is  a  capital  mistake 
for  any  priest,  young  or  old,  to  flatter  himself 
that  his  ignorance  or  imperfect  knowledge  of 
rubrics,  even  the  minor  or  so-called  directive 
rubrics,  is  other  than  discreditable  to  him.  It 
is  worse  than  a  mistake,  'tis  an  absurdity,  for 
him  to  imagine  that  such  ignorance,  so  far  from 
being  shameful,  is  rather  something  to  brag 
about  and  glory  in,  as  connoting  a  big,  broad- 
minded,  liberal  personage  unhampered  by  the 
narrow,  petty  details  made  much  of  by  smaller 
men.  Slovenly  carelessness  or  negligence  in 
carrying  out  even  the  niceties  of  rubrical  re- 
quirement, and  quasi-contemptuous  flippancy 
in  talking  about  them,  stamp  a  priest  as  a  cler- 
ical Dogberry  who  needs  no  outside  assistance 
in  writing  himself  down  an  ass. 

If  the  greatest  personages  in  civil  life  do  not 
think  it  beneath  them  to  obey  the  multitudinous 
prescriptions  of  social  e  iquette,  if  the  highest 
officers  in  the  army  pride  themselves  on  know- 
ing and  observing  the  veriest  minutiae  of  the 
military  code,  if  the  most  eminent  religious 
scruple  to  neglect  the  smallest  details  of  their 
order's  rule,  surely  it  is  altogether  unbecoming 
in  a  priest  of  God  to  ignore  or  neglect  or  decry 
the  regulations  ordained  by  the  Church  for  the 
celebration  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice,  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments,  or  other  religious 
functions.  The  distinction  between  a  careful 
observer  and  a  careless  contemner  of  the 
rubrics  is  not  a  negligible  difference  "'twixt 


94 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I'M 


I!'     ( 


Tweedledum  and  Tweedlcdee,"  but  just  such  a 
diiierencc  as  that  between  a  gentleman  and  a 
boor,  between  a  thoroughly-drilled  soldier  and 
a  ludicrous  member  of  the  awkward  squad. 

Dean  Patterson.  Well  said.  Father  Downey.  I 
endorse  every  word  of  your  protest  against  ig- 
norance of  the  rubrics  and  constructive  con- 
tempt of  their  prescriptions.  Let  us  hope  that 
your  lesson  will  be  taken  to  heart  and  that  in 
future  we  may  all  be  able  to  comment  on  any 
similar  rebuke  with  fuller  truth  than  at  pres- 
ent: "Let  the  galled  jade  wince,  our  withers 
are  unwrung." 

Fr.  Temple.  I  should  like  to  ask  whether  the  last 
word  has  yet  been  said  in  the  matter  of  enter- 
ing the  sanctuary  for  Mass  when  the  sacristy 
is  behind  the  altar.  Father  Mcriarty  and  I  are 
particularly  interested  in  the  subject,  but  such 
authorities  as  we  have  consulted  are  opposed 
one  to  another  in  their  decisions. 

Fr.  Harris.  I  a:  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  the 
last  word  on  the  subject  has  been  said.  As  many 
of  you  doubtless  remember,  the  Baltimore  Cere- 
monial (edition  of  1894)  says:  "When  the 
sacristy  is  behind  the  altar  of  the  church,  the 
celebrant  enters  the  sanctuary  by  the  Epistle 
and  leaves  by  the  Gospel  side."  Wapelhorst,  in 
the  edition  of  1887,  said  the  same  thing;  but  in 
the  edition  of  1905  reversed  his  ruling  and  de- 
clared that  the  entry  should  be  by  the  Gospel, 
and  the  leaving  by  the  Epistle,  side.  O'Cal- 
laghan  (after  Zualdi)  upheld,  in  his  edition  of 
1907,  the  contention  of  our  Baltimore  work,  as 


RUBRICAL   00^3   AND    ENDS 


95 


did  Father  Doyle,  S.  J.,  in  a  brochure  published 
in  1914.  Within  the  past  year,  however,  the 
subject  was  discussed  in  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical 
Record,  and  there  was  cited  a  specific  decree 
stating  that  the  celebrant  should  go  to  the  altar 
by  the  Gospel  side  and  return  to  the  sacristy  by 
the  Epistle  side.  The  confusion  in  the  matter 
probably  arose  from  the  use  of  the  words 
"right"  and  "left"  as  applied  to  the  altar.  The 
right-hand  side  of  the  altar  is  the  same  as  the 
right-hand  side  of  the  Crucifix  above  it,  or  as 
the  right-hand  side  of  the  priest  when,  standing 
it  the  altar,  he  faces  th"*  pie — that  is,  the 
Gospel  side 
tr.  Moriarhj.  n  delighted  to  learn  that  at  least 
one  di»pi!»t  u  point  in  the  rubrical  cotroversies 
of  Fr.  Tem*«*    and  loyself  has  been  definitely 

!he  Bureau  can  answer  with 

id  authority  several  q   estiuns 

ask  concerning  the  (    torium. 

when  should  the  ciborium  be 

ilk  or  silver  or  gold  cloth  veil? 

villi)  it  contains  consecrated 

'f  sut  -1  ho«*ts. 

*  n  nuslake  to  put  the  veil 

^  hosts  that  are  fo  be 


settled,  an« 

equal  preci 

I  am  move*. 

In  the  first  pi 

covered  with  i 
Fr.  Downey.    Om 

hosts,  or  parficl* 
Fr.  Moriarty.    Then 

on  a  ciborium  con 

consecrated? 
Fr.  Downey.    I  think 

to  that:  such  a  practi 
Fr.  Moriarty.     I  thought 

in  a  convent  chapel  i 

weeks  ago.     I  wasn'i 

to  tell  the  Mother  S 


'K>  question  as 

I 

^  the  practice 

■  Mass  a  few 

it     nougii        ny  ground 

^ri^r  that  i     vss  absc- 


lik 


96 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUaUDS 


lutely  wrong,  but  I  did  tell  her  that  it  was 
probably  unri!^  rical,  and  that  she  had  better 
advise  her  regular  chaplain  to  look  the  matter 
up.  Another  point:  given  that,  as  a  rule,  a 
ciborium  should  be  purified  at  the  Mass  at 
which  it  has  been  (.luptied,  is  there  any  very 
serious  violation  of  rubrics  in  placing  it,  un- 
purified,  in  the  tabernacle,  to  await  purification 
at  a  subsequent  Mas.«?  I  suppose  of  course  that 
there  exists  some  reason  for  such  action — for 
instance,  the  desire  to  avoid  delay  v  "?n  one 
has  an  urgent  sick-call,  or  when  nnoti.  priest 
who  is  pressed  for  time  is  waiting  to  say  his 
Mass  at  our  altar. 

Fr.  Downey.  While  I  doi  '  ^emeni;  v:  that  I  have 
ever  seen  any  ruling  c-  that  specific  point,  I 
should  be  inclined  to  say  that,  on  general 
principles,  the  action  under  the  given  circum- 
stances is  quite  allowable. 

Fr.  Doyle.  I  am  of  the  same  opinion,  and  am 
pretty  sure  that  it  is  shared  by  at  least  one 
rubrical  authority,  though  I  can't  just  now  re- 
call his  name.  My  remembrance  of  the  point 
in  question  is  somewhat  "ivid  because,  two  or 
three  years  ago,  I  was  taken  io  task  by  an 
elderly  priest  for  doing  just  that  thing,  placing 
an  unpurified  empty  ciborium  in  the  taberna- 
cle; and,  a  month  or  two  later,  I  had  the  satis- 
faction of  citing  for  his  benefit  a  rubrical 
authority  who  said  the  action  was  quite  right. 

Fr.  Moriarty.  My  final  question  has  to  do  with  a 
point  that  perhaps  admits  of  no  controversy; 
but  it  will  do  no  hanii  to  men*  on  it,  anyway. 


T 


RUBRICAL   ODDS   AND   ENDS 


97 


At  my  daily  Mass  I  have  habitually  from 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  communicants,  and 
I  accordingly  empiy  two  or  three  ciboriunis  a 
week.  I  make  it  a  practice  not  to  fill  the  cibo 
rium  I  am  about  to  consecrate  quite  full,  to 
avoid  the  Hanger  of  some  of  the  particles'  over- 
flowing and  dropping  on  the  platform  of  the 
altar  or  the  floor  of  the  sanctuary.  Now,  when 
I  open  the  tabernacle  at  Communion  time  and 
take  out  the  ciborium  enclosed  therein,  I  find 
that  it  contains,  sometimes  three  or  four,  some- 
times ten  or  twelve,  and  occasionally  twenty  or 
thirty  hosts.  In  the  last-mentioned  case,  I  dis- 
tribute the  particles  from  this  (old)  ciborium 
to  the  people,  and  then  return  to  the  altar  for 
the  (new)  ciboriui.i  whose  contents  have  just 
been  consecrated.  In  the  first  case,  when  only 
three  or  four  I'aiUeles  remain  'p  .'le  old  cibc- 
rii'.m,  I  consume  Hiem  a  )nce.  Vhat  I  should 
lil  e  »o  know  is,  whether,  when  the  old  ciborium 
contains  ten  or  twelve  consecrated  hosts,  it  is 
altogether  inadmissible  for  me  to  empty  those 
particles  into  the  new  ciborium  before  going  to 
the  Communion  rail. 

I  have  said  that  the  point  is  perhaps  not  con- 
trovertible at  all,  because  it  seems  to  be  com- 
pletely covered  by  the  Roman  lUtual,  which 
says,  in  its  chapter  on  the  Blessed  Sacrament: 
"Hostiae  vcro  scu  particulae  consecrandae  sint 
recentes;  et  ubi  eas  consecraverit,  veteres  primo 
distribuat  vel  sumat."  On  the  face  of  it,  this 
prescription  makes  it  a  matter  of  obligation  to 
distribute  or  consume  the  consecrated  particles 


It 


h 


;'!< 


I 


98 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


in  one  ciborium  before  beginning  to  distribute 
those  in  the  ciborium  newly  consecrated.  From 
the  context  of  the  prescription,  however,  as 
from  Lehmkuhl's  comment  on  that  prescrip- 
tion, it  would  seem  that  the  sole  reason  for  the 
regulation  is  the  safeguarding  of  the  law  re- 
quiring the  ;  newal  of  the  Sacred  Species  every 
eighth  day.    As  there  is  no  danger  whatever  of 
that  law's  being  violated  in  the  case  of  which 
I  speak,  I  believe  that  the  spirit  of  the  Ritual's 
regulation  would  not  be  disobeyed  if  I  emptied 
the  ten  or  twelve  particles  from  the  old  cibo- 
rium into  the  new  one.    What  do  you  think  of 
the  matter.  Father  Downey? 
Fr.  Downey.    I  think  that,  if  you  should  put  the 
case  to  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  Rites,  your 
suggested  practice  might  be  authorized;  but  I 
should  not  care  to  advise  that,  in  the  meantime, 
you  should  go  against  the  clear  letter  of  the 
rubric  in  the  Ritual.    There  is  of  course  no 
question  that  our  present  practice  of  frequent 
and  daily  Communion  puts  a  new  face  on  the 
matter    of    frequently    renewing    the    Sacred 
Species;  there  is  far  less  danger  now  than  there 
used  to  be  of  the  ciborium's  containing  hosts 
consecrated  longer  than  a  week;  and  I  have  lit- 
tle doubt  that  some  excellent  priests  actually 
follow  the  practice  which  you  suggest,  on  the 
principle  that  the  real  object  of  the  Ritual's 
rubric  is  attained;  but,  personally,  I  should  not 
care  to  act  on  my  own  idea  of  common  sense 
when  such  action  runs  directly  contrary  to  a 
clearly  expressed  law  of  the  Church. 


RUBRICAL  ODDS   AND   ENDS 


99 


Fr.  Doyle.  In  other  words,  "safety  first"  is  your 
view  of  tlie  matter,  Fatlier  Downey;  and,  al- 
tliough  some  may  tliinl;  that  your  position  is 
ultra-conservative,  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with 
you.  The  new  conditions  brought  about  by  the 
new  practice  of  frequent  and  daily  Communion 
may  cause  a  modification  of  the  rubric  in  ques- 
tion, but,  until  it  is  modified,  1,  for  one,  shall 
continue  to  observe  it. 

Fr.  Browning.  Perhaps  I  am  unduly  naive  in  mak- 
ing the  statement;  but  I  don't  agree  with  either 
of  the  last  two  speakers,  in  theory  or  in  prac- 
tice. As  a  matter  of  daily  fact,  I  habitually 
adopt  the  course  suggested  by  Father  Moriarty. 
The  thing  appears  to  me  to  be  perfectly  simple. 
The  Ritual  wants  us  to  make  sure  that  no  conse- 
crated hosts  are  kept  beyond  eight  days.  Now, 
I  am  quite  sure  that,  even  if  I  emptied  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  hosts  from  the  old  ciborium  into 
the  new  one  before  beginning  the  distribution 
to  the  people,  all  of  them  would  be  consumed 
within  the  required  time.  Then,  why  scruple 
about  ten  or  twelve?  So  evidently  permissible 
has  the  practice  appeared  to  me,  that  I  never 
even  thought  of  consulting  any  one  as  to  its 
allowableness. 

Dean  Patterson.  Well,  you  might  do  worse  now. 
Father  George,  than  consult  some  one — our 
ordinary,  for  instance — before  continuing  the 
practice.  As  you  have  heard,  the  contention 
opposed  to  yours  is  also  perfectly  simple.  The 
Ritual  forbids  a  certain  action.  Our  duty  is, 
not  to  hunt  up  reasons  for  setting  its  prescrip- 


*  * 


100 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tions  at  naught,  but  to  obey  those  prescriptions 
as  long  as  they  remain  in  force.  If  we  think 
they  should  be  modified,  it  is  our  privilege  to 
suggest  as  much  to  the  proper  authorities;  but, 
in  the  meanwhile,  it  is  best  to  conform  to  the 
law. 

Fr.  Ferguson.  To  touch  on  a  cognate  point,  what 
does  our  Bureau  think  of  the  use  of  a  Com- 
munion card  as  a  substitute  for  the  Communion 
cloth,  or  an  addition  to  that  cloth? 

Fr.  Harris.  I  prefer  it  as  an  addition  to  the  cloth, 
the  server  of  the  Mass  holding  the  card  under 
the  chin  of  the  communicant.  And  I  think  it 
an  excellent,  not  to  say  a  necessary,  thing,  for 
the  server,  when  the  distribution  is  finished,  to 
carry  the  card  (holding  it  level)  to  the  altar 
where  the  celebrant,  tapping  its  edge  on  the  cor- 
poral, may  remove  any  minute  particles  that 
have  possibly  fallen  upon  it.  Where  only  a 
card  is  used,  as  in  convent  chapels,  and  the 
number  of  communicants  is  large,  such  a  quasi- 
purification  of  the  card  by  the  celebrant  is  a 
precaution  that  can  scarcely  be  considered 
superfluous. 

Fr.  Temple.  Speaking  of  convent  chapels :  when, 
as  is  generally  the  case,  there  is  no  altar-boy  to 
serve  Mass,  is  it  rubrical  for  the  priest  at  the 
Lavabo  to  wash  his  hands,  that  is,  the  tips  of 
his  thumbs  and  forefingers,  by  dipping  them 
into  a  finger  bowl  partially  filled  with  water, 
instead  of  awkwardly  pouring  on  them  (and 
often  enough  on  the  altar-cloth  or  the  linen 


RUBRICAL   ODDS  AND   ENDS 


101 


cover  of  the  credence  table  as  well)  the  water 
from  the  cruet? 

Fr.  Doyle.  If  I  remember  well,  that  question  was 
put  a  year  or  two  ago  to  one  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical monthlies,  and  the  answer  was  that  the 
use  of  a  finger  bowl  or  small  glass  dish  in  the 
given  case  is  quite  correct.  The  editor  dis- 
claimed knowledge  of  any  rubric  forbidding  it, 
and  added  that  he  knew  of  localities  where, 
even  when  there  U  \.  server,  use  is  made  of  a 
glass  bowl  at  the  Liuabo.  After  all,  the  rubrical 
expression,  "lavat  manus,"  does  not  seem  im- 
peratively to  demand  the  pouring  of  the  water 
from  the  cruet. 

Fr.  Delaney.  Apropos  of  saying  Mass  without  a 
server,  do  our  faculties,  which  permit  us  to 
celebrate  "sine  ministro,"  also  allow  us  to  say 
Mass  when  there  is  no  one  whatever  except 
ourself  present  in  the  church  or  chapel  in  which 
it  is  said?  I  ask  the  question  because  of  an 
experience  I  had  last  summer.  I  was  visiting 
a  -clerical  friend  in  Canada.  He  invited  me  to 
say  the  regular  six  o'clock  Mass  in  his  stead, 
remarking  that  he  would  celebrate  at  an  earlier 
hour.  It  developed,  later  on,  that  he  was  de- 
layed a  little  beyond  his  appointed  hour, 
awaiting  the  appearance  of  his  housekeeper. 
When  he  informed  mc  of  this  fact,  I  took  it  for 
granted  that  he  wanted  the  housekeeper  to  act 
as  a  quasi-server,  reading  the  responses,  as  do 
Sisters  in  convents,  and  told  him  that  our  facul- 
ties in  this  diocese  allowed  us  to  dispense  with 
a  server.    He  then  stated  that  his  faculties  gave 


■ 


ii^ 


102 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGJABDS 


him  the  same  privilege,  and  that  it  was  not  the 
housekeeper's  serving,  but  her  mere  presence, 
that  he  desired.  He  evidently  doubted  the  licit- 
ness  of  his  celebrating  without  the  presence  of 
at  least  one  member  of  the  faithful.  The  fifth 
of  our  faculties,  that  which  permits  us  to  cele- 
brate "an  hour  before  daylight  and  an  hour 
after  noonday,  without  a  server,"  etc.,  makes  no 
mention  of  this  particular  point;  so  I  should  like 
to  hear  some  opinions  upon  it. 

Fr.  Crossway.  As  an  offhand  opinion,  what's  the 
matter  with  saying  that,  if  we  can  say  Mass 
without  a  server,  a  fortiori  we  can  do  so  with- 
out an  attendant? 

Fr.  Temple.  The  principal  matter  with  the  state- 
ment is  that  it's  not  correct.  Available  attend- 
ants at  Mass  are  far  more  numerous  than  are 
competent  servers,  and  it  is  quite  conceivable 
that  the  greater  difficulty  or  inconvenience  of 
securing  a  server  might  move  Rome  to  allow  a 
priest  to  dispense  with  his  assistance,  while  still 
requiring  the  presence  of  some  attendant  at  the 
Holy  Sacrifice. 

Fr.  Browning.  Pardon  me,  but  are  you  quite  sure 
that  Rome  docs  require  such  presence?  If  not, 
there  is  clearly  no  need  of  any  special  faculty 
authorizing  the  celebration  of  Mass  under  the 
given  conditions. 

Fr.  Downey.  Oh,  yes.  Father  Browning,  a  special 
faculty  is  needed,  fast  enough.  The  crux  of  the 
matter  is  whether  the  faculty  permitting  us  to 
celebrate  without  a  server  includes  permission 
to  say  a  solitary  Mass,  that  is,  one  at  which  no 


RUBRICAL  ODDS  AND   ENDS 


103 


»l 


one  save  the  celebrant  himself  is  present.  I  had 
occasion  recently  to  look  the  matter  up;  and 
while  I  could  gather  nothing  absolutely  definite 
as  to  what  is  and  is  not  permitted,  I  secured 
sufficient  evidence  to  convince  myself  that  Mass 
without  a  server  and  a  solitary  Mass  are  not 
interchangeable  terms,  and  that  our  faculty 
allowing  us  to  dispense  at  need  with  a  server 
does  not  allow  us  to  dispense  with  the  presence 
at  Mass  of  at  least  one  of  the  faithful. 

O'Brien,  in  his  "History  of  the  Mass,"  de- 
votes a  page  to  a  discussion  of  the  solitary 
Mass,  but,  beyond  saying  that  it  is  still  practiced 
to  a  great  extent  in  missionary  countries,  he 
throws  no  light  on  the  specific  point  I  have  men- 
tioned as  the  crux  of  the  question.  A  scholarly 
friend  of  mine.  Bishop  M.,  whom  I  consulted 
on  the  matter,  seemed  to  think  that  the  privi- 
lege of  celebrating  "'sine  ministro"  involves  the 
privilege  of  saying  the  solitary  Mass.  On  the 
other  hand,  another  friend.  Archbishop  S.,  in- 
formed me  that  the  Church  has  always  held  in 
a  certain  abhorrence  these  solitary  Masses,  and 
referred  me  to  Gasparri's  "De  Sarctissima 
Euchuristia,"  Vol.  I,  par.  645.  As  1  see  the  book 
is  among  our  works  of  reference  here,  let  me 
quote: 

Anti(^uitus  in  ^ualibet  Missa,  clericis  et 
praesertim  diaconis  sacerdoti  inservioutibus, 
ipsi  fideles  Missae  assistentes  sacerdoti  respon- 
debant;  cujus  disciplinae  vesti^a  habemus  in 
Missa  cum  cantu  celebrata.  Deinde  ad  evitan- 
dum  confusionem  statutum  est  ut  in  Missa 
privata  unus  nomine  omnium  fldelium  minis- 


f 


104 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


'  iM 


traret  et  responderet  Postea  monachi  saccr- 
dotes  Missas  solitarias  introduxerunt,  quae 
scilicet  solus  sacerdos,  ministrante  ac  prae- 
senti  nemine,  cclebrabat,  eosque  saeculares 
sacerdotes  imitati  sunt.  Eas  sacri  canones 
prohibr^runt,  quod  praesertim  absurdum  esset 
in  ea  sacerdotem  dicere:  Dominus  vobiscum, 
Sursiim  corda,  G ratios  agamus,  Qremus.  Haec 
ratio  gravis  non  est,  sed  canonica  prohibitio 
nianet. 

My  archiepiscopal  friend  says  that  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  Roman  Pontiff  ccuid  dispense 
from  this  prohibition,  but,  while  not  presuming 
to  decide  whether,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  fac- 
ulty of  celebrating  sine  ministro  does  dispense 
from  it,  he  inclines  to  take  the  negative  view; 
and  I  agree  with  him. 

Fr.  Doyle.  Some  one  has  said  that  one  fact  is 
worth  a  hundred  theories;  and  here  is  a  fact 
that  throws  considerable  light  on  the  point 
under  discussion.  A  very  few  years  ago,  a 
missionary  prelate,  the  Bishop  of  Natal,  was 
visiting  this  country.  In  conversation  with  a 
friend  of  mine.  Father  H.,  this  subject  of  the 
solitary  Mass  came  up,  and  the  Bishop  pro- 
d'lced  his  faculties  and  showed  my  friend 
where  the  Propaganda  had  deleted  the  clause 
permitting  the  celebration  of  such  Masses.  It 
would  accordingly  seem  that,  in  :ne  first  place, 
a  specific  permission  to  say  the  solitary  Mass 
is  required;  and  that,  in  the  second  place,  a 
privilege  denied  to  a  missionary  bishop  is  not 
likely  to  be  granted  to  the  bishops  and  priests 
of  this  country. 


RUBRICAL   ODDS   AND    ENDS 


105 


i 


i 


I 
1^ 


Fr.  Harris.  Personally,  I  judge  that  fact  to  be  con- 
clusive evidence  that,  while  we  may  at  need 
celebrate  without  a  server,  we  cannot,  without 
a  special  permission  not  contained  in  our  ordi- 
nary faculties,  iay  Mass  absolutely  by  our- 
selves with  no  one  else  present. 

Fr.  Downey.  Just  let  me  add  that  the  New  Code 
of  Canon  Law  states  nothing  specific  on  the 
point.  I  purpose,  however,  having  the  direct 
question  put  to  the  Sacred  Congregation  of 
Rites:  Does  the  faculty  to  celebrate  sine 
ministro  accord  permission  to  say  a  solitary 
Mass?  In  the  meantime.  Father  Delaney's 
Canadian  friend  would  seem  to  have  been  right 
in  waiting  for  his  housekeeper's  appearance 
before  beginning  his  Mass. 

Fr.  Harris.  It  is  doubtless  a  far  cry  from  saying 
Mass  without  a  server  to  saying  Mass  at  sea; 
but  the  mention  of  our  faculties  reminds  me 
of  a  communication  sent  to  an  ecclesiastical 
periodical  two  or  three  years  ago  by  a  corre- 
spondent who  signed  himself  "Episcopus 
Meridionalis."  I  think  I  can  trust  my  memory 
to  quote  his  statements  with  textual  exactness. 
He  mentioned  the  following  as  decisions  of  the 
Sacred  Congregation  of  Rites :  "No  bishop  can 
give  faculties  for  saying  Mass  on  board  ship 
to  his  priests."  "The  bishop  of  the  port  from 
which  the  ship  sails  cannot  give  faculties  to  a 
priest  to  say  Mass  on  shipboard."  "By  a 
Decree  of  June  30,  1908,  the  Koly  See  has 
granted  to  our  (American)  bishops,  and  those 
of  some  other  places,  when  going  to  or  return- 


106 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ing  from  Rome,  the  permission  to  say  Mass  on 
board  ship,  provided  proper  accommodations 
are  afforded,  and  the  sea  is  cahn,  and  a  priest 
assists."    I  mention  the  matter  as  rather  inter- 
esting, because  some  of  us  have  heard  priests 
speak  of  having  celebrated  Mass  on  the  Atlantic, 
although  they  never  said  anything  about  hav- 
ing received  faculties  for  that  purpose  even 
from  their  ordinary,  to  say  nothing  of  higher 
authorities.    Tis  not  improbable  that  an  occa- 
sional traveling  cleric  imagines  that,  so  long  as 
he  has  not  been  suspended,  he  is  at  liberty  to 
say  Mass  anywhere. 
Fr.  Higgins.    During  a  Solemn  Requiem  Mass  at 
which  I  was  present  in  an  Eastern  city  last 
summer,  I  noticed  the  acolytes  carrying  candle- 
sticks with  unlighted  candles.     Is  there  any 
sanction  for  that  practice? 
Fr.  Downey.    None  of  which  I  have  any  knowl- 
edge.   The  direction  that,  at  the  Gospel,  "non 
portantur  lumina,"   means   that   the   acolytes 
carry  no  candlesticks  but  stand  one  on  each  side 
of  the  subdeacon  with  hands  joined. 
Fr.  Crf>ssway.    Is  the  biretta  a  constituent  part  of 
a  priest's  costume  when  he  is  about  to  say 
Mass? 

Fr.  Doyle.  In  the  sense  that  the  rubrics  expect 
him  to  wear  it  to  and  from  the  altar,  yes.  And 
habitual  neglect  to  wear  it  when  going  to  cele- 
brate the  Holy  Sacrifice  borders  very  closely 
on  a  contempt  that  is  seriously  culpable. 

Fr.  Hendricks.  There's  a  point  in  the  ceremonies 
proper  to  the  Forty  Hours  that  I  should  like  to 


RUBRICAL  ODDS  AND   ENDS 


107 


have  authoritatively  se'tled.  Some  three 
months  ago  I  attended  the  opening  of  that 
devotion  in  the  church  of  my  friend,  Father 
0*Rourke,  over  in  Lewisville,  in  our  neighbor- 
ing State.  As  all  the  scaffolding,  erected  for 
the  frescoing  of  his  church's  ceiling,  had  not 
been  removed,  he  dispensed  with  the  Proces- 
sion which  normally  follows  the  Mass  of  Expo- 
sition. I  recognized  the  reasonableness  of  that 
omission,  but  I  doubted  the  lawfulness  of  his 
also  omitting  the  singing  of  the  Pange  Lingua. 
When  I  spoke  to  him  about  it,  he  justified  the 
elimination  of  the  hymn  on  the  ground  that  the 
sole  purpose  of  the  Pange  Lingua  in  the  cere- 
mony was  to  occupy  the  time  taken  up  by  the 
Procession,  and  that  the  absence  of  the  latter 
made  the  hymn  superfluous.  Was  he  rijht  or 
wrong? 

Fr.  Downey.  Wrong,  most  decidedly.  At  the 
Mass  of  Exposition,  as  at  that  of  Reposition,  the 
Pange  Lingua  should  be  sung.  Procession  or  no 
Procession. 

Fr.  Temple.  When  the  Forty  Hours  are  being  ob- 
served during  Paschal  x  ime,  should  the  Paschal 
Candle  be  lit  at  Solemn  Mass? 

Fr.  Downey.  Not  unless  such  lighting  be  a  time- 
honored  custom.  Even  in  that  case  it  should 
not  be  lighted  during  the  Mass  Pro  Pace,  or, 
according  to  a  ruling  of  the  Sacred  Congrega- 
tion, at  any  other  time  when  the  color  of  the 
Mass  is  violet.  The  assigned  reason  is  that  the 
lighted  Paschal  Candle  is  a  symbol  of  joy,  inap- 


li 


108 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


1^ 


ii 


propriatc   to  a  feast  whose  color  is  that  of 
mourning,  as  is  violet. 
Fr.  Moriariy.    Am  I  wrong  in  thinking  that,  when 
the  opening  of  the  Forty  Hours  takes  place  at 
the  late  Mass  on  Sunday,  those  who  have  gone 
to  Holy  Communion  at  an  earlier  Mass,  that 
morning,  may  gain  the  indulgences? 
Fr.  Downey.    No;  you  are  quite  right.    F^r  that 
matter,  even  if  they  went  to  Confession  and 
Communion  on  the  day  before,  Saturday,  they 
could  gain  the  indulgences,  provided  'hey  made 
the  requisite  visits  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
during  the  exposition. 
Fr.  Higgins.    When  a   priest  gives   the   blessing 
after  Communion  administered  outside  of  Mass, 
does  he  kiss  the  altar? 
Fr.  Doyle.    No;  when  he  replaces  the  ciborium  in 
the  tabernacle,  he  raises  his  eyes,  extends  and 
joins  his  hands,  saying  Benedictio  Dei,  etc.,  and 
at  the  word  Patris  he  turns  to  the  congregation 
and  makes  the  sign  of  the  cross. 
Fr.  Crossway.    Is  the  blessing  always  to  be  given 
when    Communion    is    distributed   outside   of 
Mass? 
Fr.  Doyle.    Yes,  except  when  the  distribution  takes 
place  just  before  or  just  after  a  Requiem  Mass. 
Fr.   Ferguson.    Is   there   not   another   exception. 
Father  Doyle?    If  I  give  Communion  be,   re 
Mass  in  q  convent  chapel  to  Sisters  who,  I  know, 
are  to  remain  throughout  the  Mass,  may  I  not 
omit  the  blessing?    They  are  sure  to  receive 
the  regular  blessing  before  the  last  Gospel. 
Fr.  Doyle.    Most  rubricists,  I  believe,  say  that  you 


RUBRICAL   ODDS   /  ^^   ENDS 


109 


the  oxcf     ion  I 

a  Vtasa  i^  r  lh( 

hv  S  icred    'on- 

ry  propounded 


ounp 
inq 
icinn   \l 


friend    htre, 

■    \\  hcth'T  it 

'*s  N>  have  a 

iM  of  a  diflFcr- 


th»t  'ho 


.answer  is  a 
'iif  mixing 
on  mv 


>\sh 


may  omit  it  in  that  case; 
mentioned — just  before  or 
dead — is  the  only  one  mu< 
gregation  in  its  answer  to 
on  the  subject  in  1892. 

Fr.   Browning.    My   bashful 
Father  Mullin,  wants  m« 
is  ever  permitted  at  a  S 
chasuble  of  one  color  an< 
ent  color.     I've  told  hiii. 
foregone  conclusion,  th}»t  of 
of  colors  is  not  permi      d ;  b 
getting  my  opinion  corrobor. 

Fr.  Downey.  Possibly,  Fathe 
merely  insisting  that  you  chuu^ 
for  it  needs  changing.  I  kium 
some  twenty  odd  years  ago,  wl 
Mass  was  celebrated  with  a  red  chasubl'  (red 
being  the  color  of  the  day)  and  white  dalmatics. 
The  bishop  who  permitted  this  deviati(ni  from 
the  normal  usage  afterwards  consulted  a  rubri- 
cal authority  about  the  licitness  of  the  act,  and 
was  told  that  the  Sacred  Congregation,  being 
asked  about  a  case  substantially  the  same,  re- 
plied that  the  decision  in  such  a  matter  was  left 
to  the  prudence  of  the  ordinary. 

Fr.  Ferguson.  May  I  suggest  that  our  own  very 
prudent  ordinary,  were  he  here  this  afternoon, 
would  admit  that  our  present  session  has  been 
sufficiently  long? 

Dean  Patterson.  That  means  of  course.  Father 
Dan,  that  you  want  a  smoke.  Well,  possibly 
we  all  deserve  one;  so  perhaps  we  had  better 


he    is 

)pinion, 

one  case, 

TV  a  Pontifical 


110 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


f 


adjourn.  Before  doing  so,  however,  I  want  to 
express  the  great  satisfaction  I  have  experi- 
enced throughout  this  conference.  I  have  found 
it  most  interesting,  as  well  as  most  instructive: 
and  I  feel  that  I  am  speaking  for  all  of  you 
when  I  thank  the  members  of  our  Bureau  for 
the  thorough  efficiency  they  have  displayed  in 
answering  the  heterogeneous  inquiries  with 
which  they  have  been  beset.  And  now,  the  Sub 
tuum. 


PRIESTLY  MORTIFICATION 


And  thoy  that  are  Christ '■  have  crucified  the  fleeh  with  its 
vices  and  eoncupiicencefl. — OaL:  v,  t4. 

Whoever  make*  little  account  of  exterior  mortifications,  alleg- 
ing that  the  interior  are  more  perfect,  shows  clearly  that  be  is  not 
mortified  at  all,  either  exteriorly  or  interiorly. — St.  Vincent  d« 
Paul. 

Be  on  your  guard  when  you  begin  to  mortify  your  body  by 
abetinence  and  fasting,  lest  you  imagine  yourself  to  be  perfect 
and  a  sairt;  for  perfection  does  not  consist  in  this  virtue.  It  is 
only  a  help;  a  disposition;  a  means,  though  a  fitting  one,  for  the 
attainment  of  true  perfection.— St.  Jerome. 

WHILE  it  is  a  commonplace  that  human  nature 
is  much  the  same  in  all  ages  as  in  all  climes, 
it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  specific  instances  of 
such  identity  or  homogeneity  are  often  looked 
upon,  not  as  mere  matters  of  course,  bui  as  occur- 
rences really  surprising.  The  precepts  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  counsels  of  perfection  were  ob- 
'  lo;.''!"  laid  down  for  the  Christians  of  all  time, 
un<:  ai-  V  asequently  as  applicable  to  us  of  the 
fNveitieth  century  as  they  were  to  any  previous 
ger.rnijtp  <f  the  faithful  that  heard  them 
i»rf  tched  md  expounded;  yet  we  regard  the 
k  'tjcirr.  n  some  of  those  generations  as  alto- 
geiAcr  *■  'i  .  r  place  in  our  scheme  of  Christian  life 
to-da>.  That  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  for  instance,  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  should  treat  his  body  with 
great  austerity— chastising  it  with  haircloth,  iron 
chains,  and  leather  belts  armed  with  sharp 
points — this  we  accept  as  natural  enough;  but  tiiat 


ill 


'^■if 


112 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


Father  Leo,  shot  in  1908  at  the  altar  of  a  church 
in  a  western  city  of  the  United  States,  should  be 
found  wearing  these  same  instruments  of  corpora! 
mortification — this  very  probably  impressed  the 
most  of  us  as  being  quite  abnormal  and  out-of-the- 
way.  Yet  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  abnormality 
consisted  rather  in  the  tragic  discovery  of  his  aus- 
terity than  in  the  austerity  itself:  there  may  be, 
though  the  world  may  never  come  to  know  it, 
many  a  Father  Leo  among  the  nineteen  thousand 
secular  and  religious  priests  who  are  doing  God's 
work  in  this  country. 

That  Christian  asceticism  indeed  is  not  at  all 
foreign  to  our  modern  world  is  clear  from  the 
lengthy  roll  of  saints  and  near-saints  catalogued 
in  that  inspiring  volume,  "Holiness  of  the  Church 
in  the  Nineteenth  Centur>',"  a  roll  which,  lengthy 
as  it  is,  would  undoubtedly  be  notably  longer  had 
the  book's  compilers  shared  God's  knowledge 
of  the  secret  sanctity  of  many  of  His  servants. 
Nor  should  this  surprise  us.  There  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  either  mere  salvation,  or  perfect 
sanctification,  is  an  easier  matter  to  compass 
nowadays  than  was  the  case  five  or  ten  or  fifteen 
centuries  ago;  and  accordingly  the  ordinary  means 
to  its  attainment  that  were  in  vogue  in  those  far-off" 
periods  may  well  be  considered  appropriate  and 
timely  in  our  own  day.  In  the  matter  of  morti- 
fication indeed,  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that 
it  is  peculiarly  timely  for  all  Christians,  and  espe- 
cially for  priests,  in  this  twentieth  century, 
because  the  spirit  of  the  age  is  diametrically  op- 
posed thereto.     If  there  is  one  characteristic  which 


PRIESTLY   MORTIFICATIOxN 


113 


I 


'  f 


s 


distinguishes  present-duy  society,  both  in  the  world 
at  large  and  in  our  own  country  in  particular,  it 
is  its  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  Aristippus  and 
the  Cyrenaic  school  of  Greek  philosophers — 
hedonism,  the  enthronement  of  pleasure  as  the 
highest  good,  belief  in  the  supreme  importance  of 
"having  a  good  time."  The  partial  shattering  of 
this  belief  in  the  case  of  not  a  few  peoples  may  be 
placed  to  the  credit  of  the  European  War,  one 
instance  in  which  God  has  shown  how  good  may 
be  drawn  from  evil. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  truer  in  the  philosophy 
of  everyday  life  than  that  all  of  us,  clergy  and 
laity,  are  acted  upon  by  the  spirit  of  our  age.  We 
imbibe  it  in  the  very  atmosphere,  in  our  reading 
of  the  books  and  the  periodicals  of  the  day,  in  our 
more  or  less  immediate  contact  with  club-life  and 
social  functions  and  political  or  educational  gath- 
erings, in  a  hundred  and  one  phases  of  the  life  that 
is  being  lived  around  us.  Imperceptibly  for  the 
most  part,  but  none  the  less  surely,  the  influence 
of  this  age-spirit  affects  our  point  of  view,  our 
mental  habits,  and,  unless  we  are  ceaselessly  upon 
our  guard,  our  spiritual  outlook  and  our  daily 
routine.  An  excellent  test  by  which  to  determine 
whether  or  not  a  priest  has  been  deleteriously  in- 
fluenced by  the  prevalent  hedonism  of  our  day  is 
furnished  by  his  attitude  towards  exterior  morti- 
fications. If  he  is  fond  of  stressing  such  Scriptural 
texts  as,  "Rend  your  hearts  and  not  your  gar- 
ments," of  insisting  particularly  on  interior  sorrow 
for  sin,  of  uttering  such  claptrap  as  "Fat  your 
three  meals  a  day,  and  fast  from  backbiting  and 

8 


I 


i 


114 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


4ander,"  of  implying  that  all  external  penances 
are  exaggerations  and  extravagances — then  it  is 
tolerably  safe  to  assume  that  the  spirit  of  the  age 
has  warped  his  spiritual  perceptions  and  played 
more  or  less  havoc  with  his  interior  life. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  there  is  any 
other  subject  connected  with  the  spiritual  side  of 
life,  or  growth  in  holiness,  about  which  men  in- 
dulge in  so  much  sophistical  argument  as  about 
this  exterior  mortification.  If,  as  Shakespeare 
says,  "the  devil  hath  power  to  assume  a  pleasing 
shape,"  never  perhaps  does  he  exeri  i.iat  power 
so  effectively  as  when  he  is  persuading  the  com- 
fort-loving, sensual,  natural  man  that  mortification 
of  the  senses  is  akin  to  folly,  that  fasting  is  sui- 
cidal, and  that  harsh  penances  inflicted  on  the 
body  are  merely  the  fanatical  excesses  of  per- 
verted piety.  It  goes  without  saying,  of  course, 
that  no  sane  expounder  of  the  spiritual  life  denies 
that  moderation  in  all  things  is  a  virtue,  or  that 
mortification  may  be,  and  occasionally  is,  carried 
to  excess;  but  it  will  hardly  be  asserted  by  any 
judicious  observer  of  the  times  that  voluntary 
suffering,  or  self-denial  as  to  bodily  comforts  for 
God's  sake,  is  so  common  in  our  day  and  genera- 
tion that  the  average  Christian,  priest  or  layman, 
needs  to  be  warned  against  it.  In  point  of  fact 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  we  have  become  so  dom- 
inated by  the  easy-going,  not  to  say  luxury-loving, 
spirit  of  the  world  around  us  that  comparatively 
few  of  us  practice  any  exterior  mortification  at 
all.  Yet  Christ  said  to  all,  and  especially,  we  may 
assume,  to  priests:    "If  any  man  will  come  after 


■I 


mm 


b 


PRIESTLY    MORTIFICATION 


llj 


T! 


Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross 
daily,  and  follow  Me."  And  St.  Paul  conjures  us : 
"Mortify  therefore  your  members  which  are  upon 
the  earth;  fornication,  uncleanness,  lust,  evil  con- 
cupiscences, covetousness,  which  is  the  service  of 
idols."  Of  special  significance  to  the  clergy,  be- 
cause peculiarly  applicable  to  them,  is  this  other 
word  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles:  "But  I 
chastise  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjection :  lest 
perhaps,  when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself 
should  become  a  castaway." 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted,  then,  that  some 
degree  of  mortification  is  not  only  congruous  to 
the  sacerdotal  character,  but  a  necessary  means 
to  the  acquisition  of  perfection,  the  state  in  which 
the  priest  is  constituted  and  in  which  he  is  bound 
to  sustain  himself,  persevering  in  it  to  the  end  of 
life.  Ihe  soundness  of  this  doctrine  is  vouched 
for  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  saints.  "He 
who  disregards  mortification,"  declares  St.  Francis 
of  Sales,  "will  never  be  able  to  raise  his  soul  to 
the  contemplation  of  God."  St.  Teresa  remarks 
fhat  "It  is  folly  to  suppose  that  God  admits  immor- 
tified  souls  to  His  friendship."  And  St.  John  of 
the  Cross  counsels  us  to  give  credit  to  no  one  who 
rejects  penitential  exercises,  even  were  his  doc- 
trine confirmed  by  miracles,  ^t  is  quite  true  of 
course  that  many  of  these  same  saints  advise 
against  undue  zeal  in  the  matter  of  external  morti- 
fications, deprecate  their  being  looked  upon  as  an 
end  in  themselves  instead  of  a  mere  means  to  an 
end,  and  insist  on  the  superiority  of  interior  morti- 
fication— of  the  mind  and  heart,  the  judgment  and 


116 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


. 


lii' 

[  ■ 


will.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  in  their 
day  the  tendency  to  go  to  extremes  in  austerity,  to 
practice  rigorous  penitential  exercises — frequent 
prolonged  fasts,  protracted  vigils,  the  cilicium  or 
hair  shirt,  the  discipline,  etc. — was  notably  more 
pronounced  than  it  is  in  our  modern  era;  and  we 
may  be  permitted  to  surmise  that,  were  they  writ- 
ing for  our  times,  they  would  lay  more  stress  on 
the  too  common  lack  of  exterior  penances  than  on 
their  excessive  prevalence. 

To  have  done  with  generalities':  what  are  some 
of  the  mortifications  which  it  is  incumbent  on  the 
twentieth-century  priest  to  practice?  In  the  first 
place,  there  are  those  which  are  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  performance  of  duty.  Apart  from 
the  multitudinous  mortifications  involved  in  our 
willing  obedience  to  the  commandments  of  God 
and  the  precepts  of  His  Church,  the  specific  duties 
of  our  state  in  life  furnish  manifold  occasions  for 
genuine  penance  and  self-denial.  The  habitual 
and  serious  performance  of  these  duties — in  the 
pulpit,  the  confessional,  the  sick-room,  the  school, 
the  sodality,  the  young  men's  society,  etc. — almost 
UP  qrily  entails  more  or  less  weariness,  lassi- 
ti  id  fatigue     In  acquitting  ourselves  of  some 

of  iiein  we  are  gumg  against  our  grain,  running 
counter  to  our  tastes;  while  others  are  fulfilled 
only  at  the  cost  of  our  convenience  or  ease  or 
sleep,  and  sometimes  at  the  risk  of  our  health  or 
even  our  life.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
efficacy  of  such  mortifications  as  these,  provided 
only  that  they  be  accepted  in  the  proper  spirit, 
performed  gladly  for  God's  sake,  vivified  by  a  pure 


PRIESTLY    MORTIFICATION 


117 


i 


intention.  It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  remark 
that  3uch  acts  of  self-abnegation  as  are  involved 
in  the  strict  performance  of  duties  are  far  and 
away  more  meritorious  than  optional  penances 
selected  by  our  own  free  will.  A  kindly  visit  to  a 
garrulous  old  parishioner  who  is  bed-ridden  is 
probably  worth  more  in  the  sight  oi  Heaven  than 
is  a  fast  or  an  abstinence  that  is  not  obligatory; 
and  the  inconvenience  attached  to  the  preparation 
and  delivery  of  a  Lenten  instruction  may  easily 
be  a  more  efficacious  penitential  work  than  wear- 
ing a  hair  shirt  for  a  day  or  taking  the  discipline, 
instead  of  a  bath,  at  night. 

As  for  such  priests  as  are  members  of  religious 
orders  or  congregations,  the  faithful  observance 
of  the  various  points  of  their  Rule  with  its  multi- 
plied and  minute  prescriptions,  gives  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  well-nigh  continuous  mortification.  The 
self-denial  practiced  in  habitually  and  punctil- 
iously obeying  such  prescriptions,  in  unfailing 
attendance  at  the  different  exercises,  in  the  ob- 
servance of  silence  where  and  when  it  is  ordered, 
as  in  contributing  one's  share  to  the  conversation 
during  the  time  of  recreation  in  common — this  is 
e'.idently  worth  more  from  the  penitential  view- 
point than  self-chosen  exercises  of  piety  or  self- 
willed  chastisement  of  the  flesh.  The  whole  round 
of  duties  in  the  religious  life  entails  a  i  iiultiplicity 
of  trials,  little  and  great,  which  furnish  excellent 
material  for  the  practice  of  cifcctive  mortification. 
Fidelity  in  accomplishing  them,  and  superadded 
purit>  of  intention  in  their  performance,  constitute 
no  insignificant  portion  of  one's  spiritual  progress. 


tv 


118 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


A  second  class  of  mortifications  which  priests 
in  particular  may  congruously  practice  are  those 
incidental  to  providential  events  and  occurrences, 
"acts  of  God,"  as  they  used  to  be  called  in  commer- 
cial contracts.  Extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  acci- 
dents of  various  kinds,  serious  illnesses  or 
annoying  indispositions,  misfortunes  overtaking 
relatives  or  friends,  contrarieties  of  manifold 
species  disturbing  the  serenity  of  our  daily  routine 
or  delaying  the  progress  of  a  cherished  project — 
all  such  trials  are  raw  material  which  we  may  use 
to  our  spiritual  benefit  or  our  spiritual  detriment. 
By  accepting  them  as  coming  from  the  hand  of 
God,  receiving  them  with  perfect  resignation,  if 
not  with  positive  gladness,  we  evince  the  true 
spirit  of  mortification  that  is  meritorious  unto 
eternal  life;  by  bitterly  repining  at  their  occur- 
rence, lamenting  the  hardness  of  our  lot,  or  pro- 
testing against  the  injustice  of  "fate,"  we  manifest 
a  spirit  that  is  to  be  expected  in  a  lover  of  the 
world  rather  than  a  servant  of  the  sanctuary.  As 
for  the  value  of  such  trials  as  the  foregoing,  when 
properly  accepted,  St.  Francis  of  Sales  tells  us: 
"The  mortifications  which  come  to  us  from  God, 
or  from  men  by  His  permission,  are  always  worth 
more  than  those  v;hich  are  the  children  of  our  own 
will;  for  it  must  be  considered  a  general  rule  that 
the  less  our  taste  and  choice  intervene  in  our  ac- 
tions, the  more  they  will  have  of  goodness,  solidity, 
devotion,  the  pleasure  of  God,  and  our  own 
profit." 

Not  that  St.  Francis  or  any  other  master  of  the 
spiritual  life  deprecates  the  practice  of  entirely 


PRIESTLY    MORTIFICATION 


119 


voluntary  mortifications.  On  tlic  contrary,  they 
all  recognize  the  legitimate  role  played  by  such 
penitential  practices  in  the  building  up  of  the  in- 
terior life,  in  one's  progress  towards  perfection. 
While  they  animadvert  occasionally  on  the  arti- 
fices of  the  Evil  One,  who  finds  his  profit  in  the 
extravagances  of  this  or  that  penitent  given  over 
to  immoderate  indulgence  in  exterior  mortifica- 
tions, they  fail  not  to  teach  that  it  is  the  Spirit  of 
God  who  most  frequently  suggests  these  corporal 
penances.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  practical  reason, 
there  is  nothing  at  all  unnatural  or  bizarre  in  a 
Christian's  desire  to  perform  such  penances. 
Given  one's  genuine  sorrow  for  sin  committed,  the 
impulse  to  give  external  expression  to  that  sorrow 
in  acts  that  entail  suff'ering  or  sacrifice  is  quite  as 
natural  as  is  the  impulse  to  express  our  love  for  a 
friend  by  proffering  him  gifts  or  other  outward 
manifestations  of  aflfection.  Interior  sorrow  for 
sin  is  of  course  the  essential  point,  but  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  any  sorrow  really  deserving 
of  the  name  is  ever  fully  satisfied  with  such  repara- 
tion of  God's  offended  majesty  as  is  solely  com- 
prised in  the  performance  of  the  "penance" 
imposed  by  one's  confessor.  Generous  souls  are 
assuredly  not  content  therewith;  they  feel  irre- 
sistibly impelled  to  supererogatory'  works  of  expia- 
tion. 

In  determining  the  specific  nature  of  such 
works,  due  attention  must  as  a  matter  of  course 
be  paid  to  one's  veritable  spiritual  needs,  the  con- 
dition of  one's  health,  and  other  such  like  pruden- 
tial considerations.    A  wise  word  on  the  subject 


i 


m 


! 

K 


120 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


.1:^ 


<•  ' 


is  this  from  Rodriguez:  "The  principal  thing  to 
which  we  have  to  turn  our  attention,  that  we  may 
mortify  it,  and  eradicate  it  from  our  hearts,  is 
the  predominant  passion ;  that  is,  the  affection,  in- 
clination, vice,  or  bad  habit  which  reigns  most  in 
us,  which  makes  us  its  captive,  which  brings  us  into 
greatest  danger,  and  most  frequently  causes  us  to 
fall  into  grave  transgressions.  When  the  king  is 
taken,  the  battle  is  won.  And  until  we  do  this,  we 
shall  make  no  great  advance  in  perfection.**  An 
evident  corollary  of  the  principle  thus  laid  down 
is  that,  if  our  predominant  passion  partakes  more 
of  the  flesh  than  the  spirit,  as  it  not  infrequently 
does,  then  the  flesh  should  be  made  to  suffer.  Mor- 
tifying our  will  and  judgment  is  always  good  and 
sometimes  essential;  but  ^vhere  the  body  has  sinned 
the  body  should  be  punished. 

The  punishment  while  real  must  be  judicious. 
It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  any  form  of  exterior 
mortification  that  endangers  the  health  of  a  parish 
priest  is  to  be  avoided.  His  oflice  as  pastor  of 
souls  calls  for  the  performance  of  a  variety  of 
duties  the  efficient  accomplishment  of  which  calls 
in  turn  for  a  state  of  health  as  approximately  per- 
fect as  he  is  capable  of  attaining.  This  considera- 
tion need  not,  however,  discourage  the  pastor  who 
craves  the  satisfaction  of  chastising  his  body.  Even 
a  limited  knowledge  of  the  lives  of  the  saints  is 
sufficient  to  convince  one  that,  while  a  few  of 
them  went  to  extremes  of  austerity  and  practically 
ruined  their  health — a  course  of  action  which  they 
themselves  later  on  condemned — the  overwhelm- 
ing majority  of  those  canonized  servants  of  God 


PRIESTLY    MORTIFICATION 


121 


'■') 


practiced  exterior  mortifications  that  were  hygienic 
not  less  than  penitential.  The  truth  is  that  Cath- 
olic asceticism,  or  the  effort  to  attain  true  perfec- 
tion, very  commonly  produces  results  striven  for 
by  asceticism  in  the  etymological  sense  of  the 
word,  "the  discipline  undergone  by  athletes  while 
training."  Mortification  of  the  senses,  a  constit- 
uent part  of  the  system,  tends  most  frequently  to 
improve  rather  than  imperil  the  health. 

In  the  matter  of  fasting  and  abstinence,  for 
instance,  there  is  little  if  any  doubt  that  the  phys- 
ical well-being  of  the  average  priest  in  this  coun- 
try would  be  promoted  by  his  obeying  the  general 
law  of  the  Church  on  that  point,  refusing  to  avail 
himself  of  the  dispensations  granted.  Medical 
practitioners  and  medical  journals  of  the  highest 
prestige  afiirm  that,  as  a  rule,  Americans  eat  too 
much  of  all  kinds  of  food,  and  particularly  too 
much  meat.  The  most  authoritative  medical 
periodical  published  in  English  says  of  the  Lenten 
fast:  "The  Lent  season  gives  the  creature  of 
more  or  less  selfish  or  bad  habits  an  excellent 
opportunity  of  relinquishing  those  habits  for,  at 
any  rate,  a  certain  period;  and  he  may,  and  prob- 
ably will,  receive  a  salutary  and  moral  lesson 
wliich  may  induce  him  to  lead  a  better  and  phy- 
siologically happier  life.  He  may  be  poisoning 
himself,  for  example,  by  overindulgence  in  tobacco, 
alcohol,  or  even  food:  and  he  may  find  that  as  a 
result  of  his  determination  to  give  up  these  ex- 
cesses for  a  season,  his  mental  and  bodily  activi- 
ties are  improved,  his  health  is  altogether  better, 
and  so  he  is  constrained  to  go  on  with  the  'godly. 


m 

I 


wmai 


122 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


righteous,  and  sober  life.*"  So,  too,  the  Sun,  of 
New  York,  speaking  of  the  half-million  people 
who  in  that  city  "adhere  to  the  strictest  rules  of  the 
Lenten  observance,"  stated  a  few  years  ago;  "Emi- 
nent doctors  declare  that  the  forty  days  of  fasting 
as  practiced  here  are  of  inestimable  value  to  the 
health  of  the  commun'^y  that  observe  them." 

Without  observing  either  the  strict  fast  or  the 
abstinence  ordained  by  the  Church  for  Lent  and 
Advent  and  Ember  Days  and  vigils,  hovever,  one 
may  eflfectively  mortify  the  appetite,  and  that,  too, 
without  appearing  io  do  so  in  the  eyes  of  those 
with  whom  we  sit  at  table.  We  can  give  ''le  appe- 
tite less  than  it  craves;  can  deprive  it  of  all  or 
some  of  the  condiments  to  which  it  is  accustomed; 
can  choose  the  less,  rather  than  the  more,  palatable 
dishes  set  before  us;  can  abstain  from  desserts 
partially  or  altogether.  The  man,  be  he  priest  or 
layman,  who  pooh-poohs  such  acts  as  these  on  the 
principle  that  they  are  mere  trifles  unworthy  of 
the  consideration  of  a  big,  broad-minded  person- 
ality, is  simply  proving  to  a  demonstration  that  his 
liritual  perspective  is  a  false  one.  Disregard  of 
little  things  in  the  sphere  of  self-denial  is  a  mis- 
take as  pernicious  as  it  is  common.  If  the  widow's 
mite  m'  lied  the  panegj'ric  of  our  Lord,  if  the  cup 
of  cold  water  given  in  His  name  shall  not  go  with- 
out its  reward,  if  for  every  idle  word  we  speak  we 
shall  have  to  render  an  account  in  the  day  of 
judgment,  who  shall  say  that  any  action,  however 
small,  that  costs  an  cITort,  that  goes  against  our 
natural  grain,  that  represents  ever  so  slight  a  vic- 
tory over  appetite  or  pission,  is  not,  if  done  for 


PRIESTLY   MCmTIFICATION 


123 


God's  sake  and  in  a  penitential  spirit,  of  positive 
merit  in  the  sight  of  Heaven?  "Unless  you  do 
penance,"  says  our  Lord,  "you  shall  all  likewise 
perish";  and  so  intimately  is  the  idea  of  partial 
abstinence  from  food  associated  with  genuine 
penance  that  St.  Basil  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "Pen- 
ance without  fasting  is  fruitless," 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  remark  that,  in  the 
quotation  just  given,  St.  Basil  used  the  word  "fast- 
ing" in  a  more  literal  or  specific  sense  than  is 
commonly  the  case  in  Scripture  or  in  the  works  of 
ascetic  writers.    The  phrase,  "fasting  and  absti- 
nence," in  many  such  writings  is  employed  as  a 
generic  term  for  all  kinds  of  penance.    As  for 
penance  itself,  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  used 
in  this  essay  is  of  course  that  given  as  its  definition 
in  the  best  of  our  dictionaries:   sorro'v  for  sin 
shown  by  outward  acts;  self-punishment  expres- 
sive of  penitence  or  repentance;  the  suflTering  to 
which  a  person  voluntarily  subjects  himself,  as 
by  fasting,  flagellation,  self-imposed  tasks,  etc.,  as 
an  expression  of  penitence.    If  considerable  prom- 
inence is  given  in  all  treatises  on  mortification  to 
fasting  and  abstinence  in  their  proper  sense,  it  is 
because  their  authors  agree  with  this  declaration 
of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul :    "Mortification  of  the  appe- 
tite is  the  A,  B,  C  of  the  spiritual  life.    Whoever 
cannot  control  himself  in  this,  will  hardly  be  able 
to  conquer  temptations  more  difficult  to  subdue." 
Of  one  species  of  such  temptations  to  which  priests 
as  well  as  laymen  are  subject,  it  is  pertinent  to 
remark  that  authoritative  commentators  of  Holy 
Writ  hold  that  it  was  of  the  demon  of  impurity 


m 


vm 


124 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I 


t 

I 


that  our  Lord  said :  "But  this  kind  is  not  cast  out 
but  by  prayer  and  fasting." 

Other  senses  besides  that  of  taste,  however, 
need  to  be  niortifled.  Of  one  of  these  Rodriguez 
well  says :  "It  is  a  common  doctrine  of  the  Saints 
I'liut  one  of  the  principal  means  of  leading  a  good 
and  exemplary  life  is  modesty  and  custody  of  the 
eyes.  For,  as  there  is  nothing  so  adapted  to  pre- 
serve devotion  in  a  soul,  and  to  cause  compunction 
and  edification  in  others,  as  this  modesty,  so  there 
is  nothing  which  so  much  exposes  a  person  to 
relaxation  and  scandals  as  its  opposite."  There  is 
too  pronounced  a  tendency  nowadays,  even  among 
the  clergy,  to  look  upon  this  custody  of  the  eyes 
as  a  peculiarly  feminine  virtue,  altogether  con- 
gruous, to  be  sure,  in  Sisters  and  Catholic  maidens, 
but  rather  effeminate  in  robust,  common-sense 
men.  Yet  every  priest  nmst  know,  from  the  ex- 
perience of  others,  if  not  his  own,  that  sin  still 
enters  by  these  windows  of  the  soul,  and  that  fail- 
ure to  exercise  control  of  the  eyes  is  not  infre- 
quently to  expose  one's  self  deliberately  to 
dangerous  occasions  such  as  we  are  bound  to 
avoid. 

"If  any  man  offend  not  in  word,"  says  St. 
James,  "the  same  is  a  perfect  man."  The  priest- 
hood is,  as  wc  have  said,  a  state  of  perfection; 
but  individual  priests  who  measure  up  to  this 
standard  of  St.  James  are  probably  not  so  numer- 
ous as  the  "autumnal  leaves  that  strow  the  brooks 
in  Vallombrosa,"  and  accordingly  one  bodily  mem- 
ber that  may  very  profitably  be  subjected  to  hab- 
itual and  systematic  mortification  is  that  "unquiet 


PRIESTLY    MORTIFICATION 


125 


evil,  full  of  deadly  poison,"  the  tongue.    St.  Francis 
of  Sales  says  that  one  of  the  things  that  keeps  us 
at  a  distance  from  perfection  is  undoubtedly  our 
speech,  and  he  proffers  this  wholesome  advice: 
"And  since  one  of  the  worst  ways  of  speaking  is 
to  speak  too  much,  speak  little  and  well,  little  and 
gently,  little  and  simply,  little  and  charitably,  littlo 
and  amiably."    Just  how  common,  not  to  say  uni- 
versal, is  one  particular  fault  of  the  tongue,  the 
making  of  uncharitable  remarks,  any  reader  may 
determine  for  himself  by  recalling  how  often,  or 
rather  how  seldom,  in  his  experience  he  has  heard 
this  tribute  truthfully  paid  to  a  recently  deceased 
cleric:    "He  was  never  known  iu  ii  ter  an  unkind 
word  about  anybody."    A  good  inany  of  us  ver>' 
probably  merit  some  such  rebuke  as  was  admin- 
istered to  a  loquacious  penitent  who  asked  his 
spiritual  director  for  a  hair  skirt  in  order  to  mor- 
tify his  flesh.    "My  son,"  said  the  director,  laying 
his  finger  on  his  lips,  "the  best  hair  shirt  is  to 
watch  carefully  all  that  conies  out  at  this  door." 
Interior  mortification,  in  other  words,  is  prefer- 
able to  external  penances.    And  yet,  as  the  two 
are  not  mutually  exclusive,  one  may  judiciously 
follow  the  advice :     Do  this,  and  don't  neglect  that. 
Apropos  of  interior  repressions,  this  bit  of  doctrine 
from  St.  Francis  of  Sales  is  quite  in  harmony  with 
what  we  have  said  of  the  value  of  little  things  in 
the  spiritual  life:    "Above  all,  it  is  necessary  for 
us  to  strive  to  conquer  our  little  temptations,  such 
as  fits  of  anger,  suspicions,  jealousies,  envy,  deceit- 
fulness,  vanity,   attachments,   and   evil   thoughts. 
For  in  this  way  we  shall  acquire  strength  to  subdue 
greater  ones." 


m 


ir 


!  ; 

i  i 


126 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


To  return  from  this  quasi-digression  and  re- 
sume our  consideration  of  distinctively  exterior 
penitential  exercises:  one  mortification  which 
many  a  priest  would  do  well  to  practice  is — spend- 
ing from  fifteen  to  thirty  minutes  every  morning 
in  alternately  reading  and  pondering  a  brief  series 
of  supernatural  truths.  "Mortification?"  com- 
ments the  reader.  "Why,  that's  not  mortification; 
'tis  meditation."  Quite  so;  or,  at  least,  'tis  the 
framework,  the  mechanical  structure  of  medita- 
tion: and  nevertheless  if  one  is  to  believe  a  not 
uncommon  assertion  in  clerical  circles,  it  is  to 
many  priests  a  genuine  mortification  as  well.  In 
point  of  fact,  actual  neglect  of  daily  meditation, 
and  alleged  inability  to  meditate  as  the  pretext 
for  such  neglect,  characterize  a  larger  number  of 
American  priests  than  the  devout  reader  of  this 
page  is  apt  to  consider  possible.  Not  ver>'  many 
years  ago  the  present  writer  was,  to  say  the  least, 
mildly  surprised  at  this  declaration  of  an  experi- 
enced retreat-master  who  was  mentioning  the  sub- 
jects he  purposed  discussing  in  his  sermons  and 
conferences  to  a  body  of  several  hundred  dio- 
cesan priests :  "I'm  not  going  to  talk  to  them  about 
meditation;  they  won't  make  it,  anyway."  Making 
due  allowance  for  the  unquestionable  exaggera- 
tion of  the  remark,  the  residue  of  truth  which  it 
contains  is  worth  while  considering— and  deplor- 
ing. No  amount  of  external  activity,  strenuous 
labor  about  the  temporalities  of  his  parish,  or 
punctilious  performance  of  all  his  pastoral  duties, 
can  compensate  or  indemnify  a  priest  for  the  neg- 
lect of  mental  prayer. 


PRIESTLY   MORTIFICATION 


127 


If  the  practice  of  daily  meditation  is  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  bugbear  by  not  a  few  clerics,  it  must 
be  because  they  have  confounded  form  with  sub- 
stance, or  mistaken  the  shell  for  the  kernel.  It 
should  be  obvious  to  any  educated  man  that  the 
statement,  "I  can't  meditate,"  is  in  sober  earnest- 
ness fully  as  nonsensical  as  the  statement,  "I  can'i 
think."  For,  after  all,  that  is  essentially  what  medK 
tating  means,  thinking,  or,  as  the  prophet  Jere- 
miah phrases  it,  "considering  in  the  heart."  Now, 
no  priest  presumably  would  care  to  have  his  men- 
tal calibre  qualified  in  such  terms  as  Sir  Henry 
Irving  once  applied  to  an  overbearing  cross- 
examining  barrister.  The  great  actor,  having 
begun  his  answer  to  a  questic  i  by  saying,  "Well,  I 
think — "  was  interrupted  by  ilie  cross-examiner. 
"We  don't  want  to  hear  what  you  think,  sir;  we 
want  what  you  know." — "Pardon  me,"  replied  Sir 
Henry,  "am  I  not  allowed  to  think  in  answering 
these  questions?" — "No,  sir;  decidedly  not." — "In 
that  case,"  said  the  actor  incisively,  "I  may  as  well 
retire.  I  can't  talk  without  thinking:  I'm  no  law- 
yer." The  priest  who  can  coordinate  his  thoughts 
sufficiently  well  to  hold  a  sane  conversation,  write 
a  sensible  letter,  or  preach  a  good  sermon,  can 
assuredly  meditate,  if  only  he  has  the  will  to  do 
so.  True,  he  may  not  rise  to  the  heights  of  con- 
templation, be  lost  in  ecstasy,  or  be  carried  like 
St.  Paul  to  the  tliird  heaven;  but,  then,  no  masters 
of  the  spiritual  life  expect  him  to  undergo  such 
experiences.  What  they  do  expect  of  him,  and 
what  they  declare  he  cannot  safely  neglect,  is  a 
daily  private  devotional  act  consisting  in  delib- 


128 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


III 


erate  reflection  upon  some  spiritual  truth  or  mys- 
tery, accompanied  by  acts  of  the  affections  and 
the  will,  especially  the  formation  of  resolutions  as 
to  future  conduct. 

Books  of  set  meditations,  with  their  formal  divi- 
sions of  preludes,  points,  considerations,  applica- 
tions, affections,  resolutions,  colloquies,  and  spir- 
itual nosegays,  are  meant  to  serve  the  purpose  of 
helps,  not  hindrances,  to  mental  prayer;  and  it  is 
quite  possible  to  meditate  thoroughly  well  without 
having  recourse  to  them  at  all.    They  are  espe- 
cially useful,  of  course,  to  beginners;  but  even  a 
beginner  need  not  deem  it  essential  to  go  sys- 
tematically and  rigorously  through  all  the  three 
points  provided  for  him.     If  a  thought  occurring 
in  the  first  of  those  points,  or  even  in  the  preludes, 
appeals  to  him  in  a  special  way  and  enchains  his 
attention,  he  may  profitably  confine  his  reflection 
and  pondering  to  the  salutary  ideas  which  it  evokes 
and    take    practical    resolutions    in    accordance 
therewith,  without  scruple  about  his  neglecting  the 
subsequent  considerations  set  forth  in  the  book. 
It  is  probably  true  to  say,  and  it  is  consoling  to 
think,  that  a  good  many  priests  who  habitually 
fail  to  "make  their  morning  meditation,"  do  as  a 
matter  of  fact  meditate  considerably  at  odd  times 
during  the  day.    Thinking  seriously  of  God  and 
the  things  oi"  God,  reflecting  on  the  eternal  truths, 
deliberating  as  to  one's  spiritual  interests,  putting 
fine's  self  in  the  presence  of  God  and  uttering  a 
silent  heart-cry  for  additional  strength  to  be  in  the 
world  and  not  of  it,  dwelling  on  some  of  the  scenes 
in  the  passion  of  our  Lord— all  such  action  as  this 


PRIESTLY   MORTIFICATION 


129 


is,  if  not  formal  meditation,  at  least  a  substantial 
and  commendable  equivalent  therefor,  be  it  ac- 
complished where  or  when  it  may.  And  yet,  the 
formal  daily  morning  exercise  in  mental  prayer  is 
strongly  to  be  recommended  to  all  the  clergy:  at 
the  very  least  it  will  be  a  meritorious  exterior 
mortification. 

Much  the  same  plea  may  be  made  for  the 
priest's  frequent — weekly,  if  not  daily — perform- 
ance of  the  pious  exercise  known  as  "going  round 
the  Stations."  The  Way  of  the  Cross  is  both  an 
exterior  mortification  in  itself  and  an  incentive  to 
other  penitential  practices.  Performed  with  delib- 
erate thought  and  attention,  the  exercise  may  read- 
ily outvulue  the  most  fervent  meditation;  and,  even 
when  interrupted  by  frequent  distractions,  can 
scarcely  fail  to  exert  a  salutary  influence  on  the 
soul  of  him  who  is  with  abundant  reason  called 
alter  Christus.  Priests  like  other  men  can  be,  and 
often  are,  inconsistent  in  a  variety  of  ways;  but 
it  is  doubtful  that  there  exists  such  a  living  para- 
dox as  a  priest  who  habitually  makes  the  Way  of 
the  Cross,  and  yet  lives  otherwise  a  tepid  life. 

To  mention  just  one  other  practice  very  gener- 
ally recommended  to  the  clergy,  and  likely  to  be 
considered  by  those  of  them  who  have  not  yet 
adopted  it  a  downright,  unequivocal  mortifica- 
tion— obedience  to  a  detailed,  individual  rule  of 
life  is  an  approved  aid  to  rapid  progress  in  sacer- 
dotal perfection.  Nor  is  the  practice  so  negligible, 
at  least  in  the  opinion  of  some  spiritual  writers,  as 
many  a  cleric  is  apt  to  consider  it.  In  his  preface 
to    the   life    of    St.   John   Baptist    de   Rossi,    for 


130 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


instance,  the  Bishop  of  Salford  writes :  "A  rule  of 
life  is  so  necessary  for  a  secular  priest  that,  if  he 
thinks  because  he  is  not  a  monk  he  may  live  with 
his  mind  all  abroad,  by  impulse  and  without  rule, 
or  if  he  knows  that  he  has  not  sufficient  self- 
mastery  to  lead  a  life  of  rule  by  himself,  let  him 
be  well  assured  that  he  has  no  vocation  to  be  a 
secular  priest,  because  his  salvation  will  ever  be 
in  fearful  jeopardy,  and  his  fall  may  be  heard  of 
any  day."  The  statement  may  be  thought  some- 
what exaggerated,  but  it  certainly  contains  more 
truth  than  extravagance.  "If  you  live  according 
to  rule,"  says  St.  Gregorj',  "you  live  according  to 
God,"  suggesting  the  inference  that  a  rule  is  essen- 
tial to  right  living.  In  any  case,  a  personal  rule  of 
life  observed  with  fidelity  is  a  conmiendable  form 
of  exterior  mortiiication,  of  penitential  exercises 
such  as  all  priests  have  need  of;  and  an  excellent 
reason  why  a  diocesan  cleric  should  practice  this 
specific  kind  of  self-denial  is  that  it  makes  him 
resemble  the  religious,  of  whom  St.  Bernard  does 
not  hesitate  to  say  that,  as  compared  with  others, 
"he  lives  more  purely,  falls  more  rarely,  rises  more 
promptly,  walks  more  cautiously,  receives  graces 
more  abundantly,  reposes  more  :urely,  dies  more 
hopefully,  is  cleansed  more  speedily,  and  is  re- 
warded more  plentifully."  So  may  it  be  with  every 
priest  who  gives  due  place  in  his  scheme  of  life  to 
works  of  exterior  mortification ! 


THE   PRIEST   AND    NON-CATHOLICS 


I  became  all  things  to  all  iikmi  that  I  might  save  all. — I  Cor.: 

ir,  Sg. 

And  other  sheep  1  have  that  are  not  of  this  fold:  them  also 
I  must  bring,  an<l  they  shall  hear  mj-  voice,  ami  there  shall  be  one 
fold  and  one  shepherd. — St   John :  x,  Id. 

P^or  my  own  part,  L  iiave  always  looked  upon  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  village  as  belonging  to  my  parish,  endeavoring  to 
bear  in  mind  St.  Augustine's  illuminating  distinction  between  the 
body  and  the  soul  of  the  Chmi:h.— From  "  Within  Mil  Parish." 

WHILE  the  title  of  this  paper  is  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes  sufficiently  descriptive  of  th*^ 
paper's  contents,  it  is  so  far  inaccurate  as  to  war- 
rant the  statement  that  by  the  term  "non-Catholics" 
is  meant  those  who  are  outside  the  visible  body  of 
the  Church  That  not  all  of  these  are  beyond  the 
Church's  invisible  pale  is  a  commonplace  of  theol- 
ogy, although  it  appears  to  be  forgotten  or  ignored 
by  an  occasional  Catholic  preacher  who  expatiates 
on  the  traditional  dictum,  "Extra  ecclesiam  nulla 
salus."  There  is  no  minimizing  of  Catholic  doc- 
trine in  the  assertion  that  it  is  quite  possible  for 
professing  Protestants  to  be  in  good  faith;  there  is 
rather  undue  rigorism,  to  say  nothing  of  a  repre- 
hensible lack  of  charity,  in  declaring  that  they  all 
are,  and  must  be,  in  bad  faith.  "Those,"  says 
Spirago,  "who  are  brought  up  in  Protestantism, 
and  have  no  opportunity  of  obtaining  a  sufficient 
instruction  in  the  Catholic  religion,  are  not  heretics 
in  the  siglit  of  God.  for  in  them  there  is  no  obsti- 
nate denial  or  doubt  of  the  truth.    They  arc  no 

131 


132 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


more  heretics  than  the  man  who  takes  the  prop- 
erty of  another  unwittingly  is  a  thief."  Among 
more  recent  writers  on  the  same  point.  Father 
Joyce,  S.  J.,  has  this  to  say:  "Many  baptized 
heretics  have  been  educated  in  their  erroneous 
beliefs.  .  .  .  They  accept  what  they  believe  to 
be  the  Divine  revelation.  Such  as  these  belong  to 
the  Church  in  desire,  for  they  are  at  heart  anxious 
to  fulfil  God's  will  in  their  regard.  In  virtue  of 
their  baptism  and  good  will,  they  may  be  in  a  state 
of  grace.  They  belong  to  the  sowl  of  the  Church, 
though  they  are  not  united  to  the  visible  body.  As 
such  they  are  members  of  the  Church  internally, 
though  not  externally." 

This  much  being  premised,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  proffer  to  the  younger  members  of  the 
clergy  a  few  considerations  on  the  congruous  atti- 
tude of  the  Catholic  pastor  toward  those  who  are, 
either  formally  or  only  materially,  outside  the 
Church.  Let  it  be  remarked  at  the  outset  that  the 
question,  as  it  affects  the  average  American  priest, 
is  not  precisely  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  a  num- 
ber of  his  European  confreres.  Very  many  of 
those  transatlantic  priests  have  been  born  and 
brought  up  in  a  thoroughly  Catholic  atmosphere 
and  environment.  Their  chums  and  sf^hoolmates 
in  boyhood,  their  companions  in  college,  their 
friends  and  neighbors  at  home,  their  very  ac- 
quaintances even,  have  been  entirely  at  one  with 
them  in  faith  and  hope  and  religious  practice. 
Heresy  in  the  abstract  they  have  known  as  an  evil 
affecting  other  lands,  or  possibly  other  provinces 
of  their  own  countr>';  but  with  concrete  heresy, 


THE   PRIEST   AND   NON-CATHOLICS     133 


actual  heretical  boys  and  girls  and  men  and 
women,  they  have  scarcely  ever  come  in  contact. 
Even  as  pastors,  their  problems  regarding  those 
residents  in  their  parish  who  do  not  attend  their 
church  are  in  the  main  different  from  ours:  the 
overwhelming  number  of  such  non-attendants  are 
fallen-away  Catholics,  not  Protestants  by  birth  and 

training. 

Conditions  in  this  country  are  obvioi'sly   of 
quite  another  complexion.    The  great  majority  of 
young  American  priests  have  known  and  come 
into  immediate  contact  with  concrete  Protestant- 
ism from  their  earliesl  years.    Not  a  few  of  them 
have  sat  on  the  same  benches  with  Protestant  boys 
and  girls  in  the  public  schools,  and  all  of  them 
have  probably  mingled  with  Protestant  friends  and 
neighbors  in  the  games  and  sports  and  pj  rties  and 
picnics   and   excursions   and  public   celebrations 
and  other  social  and  business  relations  of  co-dwell- 
ers in  towns  and  villages  and  rural  districts.    In 
very  few,  if  any,  American  communities  is  the  re- 
ligious atmosphere  entirely,  or  even  prevailingly. 
Catholic;  in  the  vast  majority  of  them  it  is  pre- 
ponderantly non-Catholic;  and  in  an  occasional 
district  here  anrt  there,  especially  in  the  fjouth,  it 
is  avowedly  aua-Catholic.    Now,  while  this  con- 
dition of  affairs  will  be  advocated  by  no  one  as  in 
any  sense  an  ideal  condition  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  genuine  CatholiC  life  and  action,  it  can 
hardly  be  denied  that  it  is  not  absolutely  devoid  of 
some  slight  compensating  advantages  to  the  Amer- 
ican priest  whose  boyhood,  youth,  and  incipient 
manhood  have  been  lived  in  subjection  thereto. 


mm 


i;:''i 


134 


SACERDOTAL    SAFEGUARDS 


On  the  face  of  it,  his  comprehension  of  the  point 
of  view,  the  mentality,  the  prejudices,  and  the  ig- 
norance (invincible  or  otherwise)  of  the  average 
American  Protestant  is  an  asset  that  can  easily  be 
turned  to  good  account  in  a  work  which  every 
truly  zealous  priest  should  have  at  heart,  the  bring- 
ing into  Christ's  fold  of  those  "other  sheep"  for 
whom  as  well  as  for  ourselves  the  Precious  Blood 
was  shed  on  Calvary. 

It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  ardent  zeal,  the  apos- 
tolic spirit,  the  missionary  longing  to  spread 
Christ's  true  Gospel  is,  or  at  least  should  be,  a  char- 
acteristic of  every  cleric  ordained  to  the  ministry 
of  God's  all  ir.  To  the  parish  priest  in  the  most 
Protestant  town  or  village  in  the  United  States, 
not  less  than  to  the  foreign  missionary  in  Africa, 
India,  or  China,  are  applicable  the  words  of  St. 
James:  "My  brethren,  if  any  of  you  err  from  the 
truth,  and  one  convert  him :  he  must  know  that  he 
who  causeth  a  sinner  to  be  converted  from  the 
error  of  his  way,  shall  save  his  soul  from  death, 
and  shall  cover  a  multitude  of  sins."  In  all  prob- 
ability there  is  no  Catholic  parish  in  this  country 
in  which  may  not  be  found  more  than  one  or  two 
non-Catholics  whom  a  little  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  pastor  would  speedily  bring  into  the  Church, 
who  are  ready  even  now,  given  the  occasion,  to 
say  to  the  priest,  as  Agrippa  to  Paul,  "In  a  little 
thou  persuadest  me  to  become  a  Christian";  and 
h  V  the  pastor  who  in  such  a  case  can  truth- 
fully Lcho  St.  Paul's  reply:  "I  would  to  God  that, 
both  in  little  and  in  much,  not  only  thou  but  also 
ail  that  hear  me,  this  day,  should  become  such  as 


THE   PRIEST    AND    NON-CATIIOLICS     13') 


I  also  am,  except  these  bonds."  Christ's  commis- 
sion, "Go  ye  into  the  whole  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature,"  cannot  be  restricted  in 
our  day  either  to  the  workers  in  the  foreign  mission 
field,  or  to  the  preachers  of  missions  to  non-Catho- 
lics here  at  home:  it  is  binding,  in  some  degree  at 
least,  on  all  those  who  have  received  from  Him  the 
transcendent  powers  of  offering  Mass  tind  forgiv- 
ing sins. 

That  a  goodly  number  of  our  American  clergy 
recognize  the  reality  of  this  obligation  and  con- 
sistently strive  to  fulfil  it  is  made  evident  by  the 
muster-roll  of  converts  credited  to  many  of  our 
dioceses  from  year  to  year.    Hundreds  of  our  pas- 
tors, more  especially  those  in  our  larger  towns  and 
cities,  habitually  have  under  instruction  classes  of 
non-Catholics  numbering  from  two  or  three  to  a 
dozen  or  a  score.     Here  and  there  throughout  the 
country  is  found  an  exceptionally  zealous  priest 
whose  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  his  separated 
brethren  meet  with  almost  phenomenal  success, 
or  success  which  seems  phenomenal  to  other  ..'er- 
ics who  either  do  not  have,  or  do  not  profit  by,  the 
same  opportunities  of  increasing  the  number  of 
their  parishioners.    Granting  that  conditions  vary 
considerably  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  that 
the  Protestant  soil  is  in  some  of  our  States  hard 
and  sterile  while  in  others  it  is  rich  and  fruitful; 
granting,  too,  that  the  aptitude  to  influence  non- 
Catholics  and  gradually  win  them,  first,  to  take  a 
sympathetic  interest  in  our  religion,  and  finally  to 
embrace  it,  is  notably  less  marked  in  some  priests 
than  in  others,  it  may  still  be  questioned  whether 


In 

■1 


136 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


nil 

liliii 


a  pastor  who  has  exercised  his  ministry  for  ten  or 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  without  having  to  his  credit 
a  single  convert  to  the  faith,  can  flatter  himself 
that  he  has  done  his  full  duty  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  second  of  the  two  great  command- 
ments: "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
Lack  of  opportunity  and  lack  of  natural  disposi- 
tions for  the  work  may  count  for  something  in  his 
failure  to  make  conversions;  but  it  will  be  profita- 
ble for  him  to  probe  his  inner  consciousness  and 
inquire  whether  another  factor  in  the  failure  has 
not  been  his  lack  of  zeal. 

To  insist,  as  such  a  pastor  is  likely  to  do,  that 
the  spiritual  care  of  the  Catholic  flock  specifically 
entrusted  to  his  ministrations  engrosses  all  his  time 
and  energy,  that  he  has  quite  enough  to  do  in 
looking  after  his  own  people  without  adding  the 
supererogatory  work  of  evangelizing  outsiders,  is 
to  make  what  at  first  blush  may  appear  a  thor- 
oughly common-sense  statement;  but  on  examina- 
tion it  will  be  found  that  while  the  statement 
contains  something  of  truth,  it  holds  a  good  deal 
more  of  fallacy.  The  implication  that  zeal  in  con- 
vert-making connotes  any  measure  of  neglect  of  a 
priest's  proper  parishioners  is  altogether  erro- 
neous, is  so  fallacious  i;a  fact  that  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  the  true  connotation  is  the  direct  antithesis 
of  that  implied.  Almost  invariably  the  priest  who 
is  unusually  successful  in  winning  those  "without 
the  walls"  to  enter  the  Church  is  a  pastor  noted 
for  his  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  devotedncss  to 
his  flock,  an  exemplary  cleric  in  his  habitual  bear- 
ing and  conduct,  a  never-failing  friend  to  the  poor 


.1  ^T  iLtf  «■  J-  a  ia..LL.'ia , 


THE    PRIEST   AND   NON-CATHOLICS     137 


and  unfortunate,  a  frequent  visitor  to  the  sick  and 
the  afflicted,  a  wise  and  patient  counsellor  to  those 
in  difficulties,  a  veritable  spiritual  father  to  all 
those  entrusted  to  his  pastoral  charge.  It  does 
not  require  much  knowledge  of  human  nature*  in- 
deed, to  understand  that  these  very  qualities,  ex- 
emplified in  his  daily  life,  furnish  an  intelligible 
explanation  of  his  success  as  a  convert-maker. 
Whether  or  not  he  takes  account  of  the  fact,  the 
priest  in  every  American  city,  town,  village,  or 
rural  district  is  a  marked  man;  and  the  fewer  im- 
perfections of  any  kind  that  are  discernible  in  his 
life,  the  greater  the  assurance  that  some  at  least 
of  his  non-Catholic  fellow-citizens  will  be  im- 
pressed by  the  beauty  of  the  religion  which  he  lives 
as  well  as  preaches. 

Quite  apart  from  any  question  of  conversions, 
it  is  eminently  worth  while  for  a  priest  to  give 
some  thought  to  the  nature  of  the  individual  influ- 
ence which  he  exerts  on  the  men  and  women  in 
the  little  world  around  him.  While  it  is  probably 
true  to  say  that  if  there  is  one  petition  which,  less 
than  another,  the  average  mortal,  priest  or  layman, 
need  address  to  Heaven,  it  is  the  prayer  attributed 
to  a  naive  Scotch  dominie :  "O  Lord,  gie  us  a  good 
conceit  o'  oursells,"  and  while  it  is  the  part  of  wis- 
dom not  to  take  oneself  too  seriously,  not  to  be 
carried  aw<^y  by  a  sense  of  one's  self-importance,  it 
is  neither  absurd  nor  foolish  for  a  priest  to  recog- 
nize that  to  the  Catholic  cleric  with  peculiar  appro- 
priateness are  addressed  the  words  of  St.  Matthew: 
"You  are  the  light  of  the  world.  A  city  seated  on 
a  mountain  cannot  be  hid."    Individual  example 


1'^ 


138 


SACKRDOTAL  SAFEGFARDS 


il 


■  : 


is  a  more  poli-nt  aginc-y  for  good  or  evil  tiian  the 
unreflecting  a  >.  apt  to  consider  it-  •»nd  no  member 
of  a  community,  certainly  no  p  it  •.  is  so  insig- 
nificant that  his  principles  and  actio.K.,  his  conver- 
sation and  conduct,  do  not  sway  toward  right  or 
wrong  some  few  at  least  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
"Even  the  weakest  natures,"  says  Smiles,  "exer- 
cise sonu>  influence  upon  those  about  them.  The 
approximation  of  feeling,  thought,  and  habit  is 
constant,  and  the  action  of  exampi?  unceasing." 

What  most  laymen,  and  possibly  a  few  priests, 
need  to  have  persistently  impressed  upon  their 
minds,  as  to  this  matter  of  individual  influence,  is 
the  unquestionable  truth  that  we  shall  be  judged 
with  regard  not  merely  to  the  evil  we  have  done, 
but  also  to  the  good  which  we  have  failed  to  do. 
Not  to  give  a  positively  bad  example  is  well  enough 
as  far  as  it  goes,  hut  it  clearly  does  not  constitute 
the  complete  fulfilment  of  a  cleric's  duty  to  the 
people  in  the  world  about  him.  A  priest's  influ- 
ence on  those  with  whom  he  comes  habitually  in 
contact,  be  they  Catholic  or  Protestant,  infidels  or 
Jews,  ought  to  be  something  more  than  simply 
innocuous;  it  should  he  positively,  not  to  say  ag- 
gressively, beneficent.  A  man  of  God,  a  true  am- 
bassador of  Christ,  he  should  impress  those  not  of 
the  household  of  the  faith  in  much  the  same  way 
as  Carlyle  was  impressed  by  the  life-story  of  the 
twelf th-centur\'  monk  of  St.  Edmund's : 

The  great  antinne  heart;  how  like  a  child's 
in  its  simplicity,  like  a  man's  in  its  earnest 
solemnity  and  iepth!  Heaven  lies  over  him 
whereso*    er  hi  goes  or  stands  on  E;  --th;  mak- 


THE    PHIKST    AND    N()N  <  ATllOLlCS      i:]!> 


iiig  ull  Kurtii  a  niyslic  IViiipk-  to  him,  the 
Hiirth's  busiiuss  all  a  kind  or  worship, 
(iliinpsi's  ol"  bright  crcaluics  Hash  -n  llu*  com- 
mon sunlight;  angels  yet  hover  uoing  (lod's 
messages  among  men:  that  rainbow  was  set  in 
the  clouds  by  the  hand  ol  (io«l!  Wontler, 
miracle  encompass  the  man;  he  lives  in  an  ele- 
ment of  miracle;  Ileavin's  splendor  over  his 
head.  Hell's  darkness  under  his  liit.  A  great 
law  of  duty,  high  as  these  two  inlhiities,  ilwarf- 
ing  all  else,  annihilating  all  els(>  making  i'<  yal 
Hichard  as  small  as  peasant  Samson,  smaller 
if  need  be!  -The  "inuiginalivc  faculties'? 
"I\ude  poetic  ages"?  The  "primeval  poetic 
element '?  O  for  (lod's  sake,  giiod  rea<U  r.  talk 
no  more  of  all  that!  It  was  not  a  Dileltanlism. 
this  of  Abbot  Samson.  1.  wm'^  a  Reality,  and 
it  is  one.  The  garment  only  oi  it  is  dead;  the 
essence  of  it  lives  through  II  Time  and  all 
Eternity! ' 


In  a  truer  sense  than  was  dreamt  of  by  the 
Scotch  essayist  th«'  twentieth-century  priest  not 
less  than  the  twelfth-century  monk  "lives  in  an 
element  of  miracle,"  is  encompassed  by  supernat- 
ural wonders  from  morning  till  night— sununoning 
God  Himself  from  the  supernal  glorj*  of  Heaven 
to  the  humble  altar  whereon  He  is  daily  offered 
as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice,  visiting  Jesus  Christ 
really  present  in  the  tabi  rnacle  from  time  to  time 
as  the  hours  slip  by,  nay,  acting  Jesus  Christ  both 
at  the  altar  and  in  the  confessional— //oc  est  enim 
corpus  meum — E(jo  te  ahsolvo  a  peccatis  tnis.  In 
very  truth  Heaven  lies  over  the  priest  wheresoever 
he  goes  or  stands  on  earth,  is  close  at  hand — the 


■  •     !1 


»  Paat  and  Present,  p.  91. 


140 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


adorable  Persons  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  the  Im- 
maculate Mother  of  the  Word  Incarnate,  and  all 
the  hosts  of  archangels  and  angels  and  glorified 
saints  within  easy  call. 

Surely  such  closeness  to  the  supernatural,  such 
intimate  communion  with  the  Creator,  the  Re- 
deemer, and  the  Sanctifier  of  mankind  and  with 
Their  heavenly  worshippers  of  every  rank  should 
leave  its  impress  on  the  privileged  mortal  who 
enjoys  a  blessing  so  signal  and  so  constant.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  impress  is  left,  not  merely  on 
the  mind  and  soul  of  the  priest,  but  on  his  exterior 
form  as  well.  That  outward  indication,  so  unde- 
finable  yet  so  unmistakable,  of  interior  character 
or  feeling  or  emotion  to  which  we  give  the  name 
"expression";  that  significant,  if  indescribable,  cast 
of  countenance,  peculiar  look  or  appearance  that 
we  call  "bearing"  or  "air"  sets  off  the  ordained 
priest  from  all  other  men,  and,  although  of  almost 
infinite  variety,  is  so  far  uniform  that  it  is  recog- 
nized at  once  by  the  world  at  large,  by  those  out- 
side the  fold  as  well  as  by  our  brethren  in  the 
faith.  It  is  a  truism  that  no  masquerade  is  more 
transparent  and  futile  than  that  of  the  priest  who 
attempts  by  the  disguise  of  costume  to  conceal  his 
identity. 

This  inalienable  and  unalterable  stamp  of  the 
priesthood  which  each  of  us  wears  necessarily 
aflfects  our  relations  with  non-Catholic  neighbors, 
acquaintances,  and  fellow-citizens  generally.  It 
may  well,  for  instance,  lead  us  to  manifest  toward 
these  separated  brethren  more  politeness,  courtesy, 
and  affability  than  they  could  reasonably  claim 


THE   PRIEST   AND   NON-CATHOLICS     141 


from  us  were  we  merely  Catholic  laymen.  Any 
advances  looking  toward  acquaintanceship  or  pos- 
sible friendship  may  congruously  be  made  from 
our  side,  if  only  to  counterbalance  the  exaggerated 
sense  of  aloofness  with  which  the  average  Protes- 
tant man  in  the  street  regards  one  of  our  cloth. 
Just  what  degree  of  approacliableness,  urbanity, 
complaisance,  or  affability  a  priest  may  properly 
display  in  his  intercourse  with  non-Catholics  is 
not  of  course  a  matter  to  be  settled  with  rubrical 
or  mathematical  definiteness  and  precision.  Quite 
within  the  bounds  of  gentlemanly  conduct  such 
as  every  cleric  is  professionally  called  upon  to  ob- 
serve, there  are  widely  different  types  of  manners 
and  modes  of  action  advocated  in  theory  and  ex- 
emplified in  practice  by  clerical  advisers  and 
clerics  themselves,  the  world  over.  Without  being 
really  insolent,  haughty,  arrogant,  dictatorial, 
supercilious,  overbearing,  or  domineering,  a  priest 
may  by  his  exaggerated  reserve  and  constraint  and 
silence,  or  by  his  undue  readiness  to  take  offense 
where  none  is  intended  and  "to  stand  upon  his 
dignity"  without  any  genuine  provocation  thereto, 
impress  non-Catholics  with  the  idea  that  he  really 
deserves  these  unflattering  epithets;  and  it  is  need- 
less to  add  that  such  an  impression  is  not  calcu- 
lated to  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  the 
priest's  appointed  work  in  either  the  natural  or  the 
supernatural  sphere. 

In  Scott's  "Fortunes  of  Nigel"  there  is  a  passage 
not  altogether  irrelevant  to  this  question  of  the 
affability  of  the  clergy.  Speaking  of  his  hero,  a 
young  nobleman,  he  says:    "He  was  not,  as  the 


Jf 


i: 


142 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


reader  may  have  observed,  very  affable  in  his  dis- 
position, or  apt  to  enter  into  conversation  with 
those  into  whose  company  he  was  casually  thrown. 
This  was,  indeed,  an  error  in  his  cone  iCt,  arising 
less  from  pride  .  .  .  than  from  a  sort  of  bash- 
ful reluctance  to  mix  in  the  conversation  of  those 
with  whom  he  was  not  familiar.  It  is  a  fault  to  be 
cured  only  by  experience  and  knowledge  of  the 
world,  which  soon  teaches  every  sensible  and  acute 
person  the  important  lesson  that  amusement,  and, 
what  is  of  more  consequence,  that  information  and 
increase  of  knowledge,  are  to  be  derived  from  the 
conversation  of  every  individual  whatsoever  with 
whom  he  is  thrown  into  a  ratural  train  of  com- 
.  lunication."  A  writer  far  otherwise  celebrated 
and  authoritative  than  Sir  Walter  expounds  much 
the  same  sort  of  philosophy  when  he  tells  us:  "1 
became  all  things  to  all  men  that  I  might  save  all." 
Obviously,  there  are  extremes  to  be  avoided  in 
aflfability  as  well  as  in  its  opposite.  St.  Paul's  "all 
things  to  all  men"  is  not  accurately  transphrased, 
or  rendered,  by  our  "hail-fellow-well-met";  and 
were  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  living  in  our  day, 
it  is  safe  to  assert  that  even  his  ardent  longing  to 
convert  his  Protestant  fellow-citizens  would  not 
lead  him  to  acquire  the  reputation  of  being  "one 
of  the  boys,"  or  to  be  acclaimed  as  "a  jolly  good 
fellow"  by  a  convivial  throng  vociferously  declar- 
ing:    "We  won't  go  home  till  morning." 

In  actual  practice,  however,  even  in  this  aggres- 
sively democratic  countr>'  of  ours,  very  few  priests 
overstep  the  congruous  limits  of  the  geniality  and 
sociabilitv  that  should  characterize  their  attitude 


mm 


THE    PRIEST   AND   NON-CATHOLICS     143 


toward  their  neighbors  and  acquaintances  outside 
the  fold;  and  the  relatively  negligible  exceptions 
who  do  carry  their  fraternization  and  cordiality 
to  extremes  invariably  learn  by  experience  that 
their  exaggerated  unconventionalisni,  their  uuduly 
free  and  easy  intercourse  with  Protestant  neigh- 
bors, eventually  defeats  any  laudable  purpose  they 
may  have  had  in  view  in  adopting  it.  It  is  well  to 
remember  that  one  may  have  a  social  tempera- 
ment, may  be  what  American  slang  expressively 
terms  "a  good  mixer,"  without  at  all  compromising 
one's  sacerdotal  dignity  or  laying  oneself  open  to 
the  charge  of  unpriestly  levity  and  frivolity.  Be- 
tween the  austere-visaged  cleric  who  uniformly 
"keeps  himself  to  himself"  and  keeps  others  at  a 
distance,  who  is  reserved  and  silent  and  severe  in 
looks  if  not  in  words,  whose  brows  are  wrinkled 
with  frowns  oftener  than  his  lips  are  wreathed 
with  smiles,  who  in  a  word  is  distinctly  unsocia- 
ble— between  him  and  the  flippant  young  curate 
or  youthful  pastor  who  rather  alTects  non-Catholic 
company  and  ostentatiously  puts  himself  on  the 
level  thereof,  who  is  apparently  at  some  pains  to 
show  that  his  priestly  character  is  no  hindrance 
to  his  participation  in  the  most  worldly  of  sports 
or  conversations,  who  tolerates  in  his  presence  the 
telling  of  questionable  anecdotes  or  possibly  nar- 
rates a  few  himself,  who  aspires  in  a  word  to  the 
reputation  of  a  man  of  the  world  rather  than  that 
of  a  man  of  God — between  these  two  extremes, 
we  say,  there  is  a  golden  mean,  a  happy  medium 
that  is  admirable,  and  is  in  fact  admired  by 
Catholics  and  non-Catholics  alike.     No  intelligent 


11 


m 


144 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Protestant  expects  a  priest  to  conform  to  standards 
that  are  lower  than  the  highest,  and  no  intelligent 
priest  will  allow  human  respect,  the  desire  for  ap- 
plause, or  the  fear  of  ridicule  to  move  him  a 
hairbreadth  from  the  hne  of  conduct  which  eccle- 
siastical law  and  clerical  custom  have  prescribed 
for  his  guidance  and  practice;  but  without  coming 
into  conflict  with  any  law  or  established  custom  a 
judicious  cleric  may  do  much  to  serve  the  eternal 
interests  of  his  non-Catholic  neighbors  and  the 
material  temporal  interests  of  himself  and  his  pa- 
rishioners by  maintaining  amicable  relations  with 
such  fellow-townsmen  as  are  not  of  the  household 
of  the  faith. 

No  one  familiar  with  the  ordinary  conditions 
in  an  American  or  a  Canadian  village  or  small 
town  in  which  Catholics  form  only  a  fifth  or  sixth, 
possibly  but  a  fifteenth  or  sixteenth,  of  the  popu- 
lation needs  to  be  told  that  the  honor  of  God  and 
His  Church  and  the  salvation  of  souls  are  best  pro- 
moted by  the  pastor  who  combines  affability  and 
tact  and  good-will  toward  all  with  general  culture, 
irreproachable  conduct,  and  enlightened  zeal. 
Genuinely  cordial  '  ?lations  with  the  Protestant 
lawyers,  doctors,  busmess  men,  and  even  ministers 
of  the  community  need  militate  in  no  way  against 
the  most  loyal  adherence  to  Catholic  principles,  or 
tend  to  the  slightest  minimizing  of  Catholic  doc- 
trines. On  the  other  hand,  such  relations  will  in  a 
hundred  and  one  different  ways  prove  of  unques- 
tionable utility  in  safeguarding  (to  take  only  the 
lowest  ground)  the  civic  rights  and  purely  tem- 
poral interests  of  the  Catholic  flock.    The  non- 


THE   PRIEST   AND   NON-CATHOLICS     145 


Catholic  editor,  for  instance,  who  habitually  meets 
Father  Murphy  on  the  footing  of  pleasant  ac- 
quaintanceship or  the  higher  plane  of  real  friend- 
ship, will  refuse  to  lend  his  columns  to  the 
propagation  of  anti-Catholic  appeals  to  local 
prejudice,  and  will  hesitate  about  reproducing 
from  other  papers  malicious  attacks  against  the 
Church  and  her  ministers  generally.  Friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  Protestant  physicians  of  the  town  re- 
move not  a  few  difficulties  which  the  pastor  would 
otherwise  encounter  in  his  visits  to  the  local  hospi- 
tal, and  ensure  his  knowledge  of  some  necessary 
sick-calls  that  might  otherwise  escape  his  notice. 
Public  spirit  and  intelligent  interest  in  the  activi- 
ties that  make  for  the  general  prosperity  and  prog- 
ress of  the  community  lead  easily  enough  to  the 
priest's  nomination  as  a  member  of  various 
boards — educational,  charitable,  commercial,  or 
industrial;  and  his  election  thereto  is  a  matter  of 
no  little  import  to  himself  and  his  parishioners. 

It  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  that 
the  priest  may  congruously  have  cordial  relations 
even  with  the  non-Catholic  ministers  who  are  his 
fellow-citizens.  While  judicious  and  experienced 
clerics  are  not  at  all  likely  to  question  the  truth 
of  this  assertion,  it  may  be  worth  while  for  the 
sake  of  some  of  our  immature  or  younger  readers 
to  fortify  our  position  by  the  quotation  of  a  couple 
of  extracts  from  approved  Catholic  authors.  In 
"Rules  for  the  Pastors  of  Souls"  we  read:  "As  a 
priest,  filled  with  lofty  ideals  and  guided  by  ex- 
quisite refinement  and  social  tact,  you  will  cer- 
tainly not  deny  that  degree  of  esteem  and  delicate 

10 


146 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ili 


consideration  for  the  religious  sentiments  of  those 
outside  the  Catholic  Church  which  you  claim  for 
yourself.  It  betrays  a  mean  soul,  a  narrow  heart, 
and  lack  of  moral  maturity,  to  have  the  audacity 
to  invade  the  sanctuary  of  another's  religion  with 
a  wanton  spirit.  Even  the  pagans,  who  manifestly 
are  given  to  a  false  religion,  justly  claim  this  ten- 
der consideration  for  their  religious  views  and 
feelings."  Somewhat  different,  this,  from  the 
theorj'  and,  alas!  from  the  practice  as  well,  of  an 
otherwise  thoroughly  pious  and  exemplary  pastor 
now  deceased,  with  whom  the  present  writer  was 
acquainted  a  good  many  years  ago.  He  appeared 
to  know  intuitively  whenever  a  non-Catholic  was 
present  in  his  church,  and  on  such  occasions  in- 
variably made  it  a  point,  no  matter  what  was  the 
specific  subject  of  his  sermon,  to  bring  in  the 
axiom,  "Outside  the  Church  no  salvation,"  and  to 
explain  it  as  meaning,  purely  and  simply,  that  all 
Protestants  would  go  to  hell  for  all  eternity.  Need- 
less to  say,  he  did  considerably  more  harm  than 
good  by  thus  unwittingly  misrepresenting  Catholic 
doctrine. 

The  work  quoted  above  is  a  translation  from 
the  German.  Of  greater  interest  and  relevancy, 
perhaps,  is  the  following  passage  from  the  charm- 
ing little  volume,  "Within  My  Parish,"  the  chapters 
of  which  originally  appeared  in  the  Ecclesiastical 
Review:  "My  relations  with  the  various  Protes- 
tant ministers  in  town  have  been  and  are  cordial 
and  enduring.  I  have  not  been  above  learning 
from  them  in  some  matters  of  practical  adminis- 
tration, and  I  like  to  think  that  my  contact  with 


THE    PRIEST   AND   NON-CATIIOLICS     147 


t" 


them  may  have  been  conducive  to  the  breaking- 
down  of  a  few  of  their  inherited  prejudices.  In 
our  discussions  we  most  often  take  our  stand  upon 
opinions  or  doctrines  held  in  common,  rather  than 
upon  those  about  which  we  differ.  I  think  no 
greater  mistake  has  been  made  by  Catholic  contro- 
versialists than  Ihe  drawing  of  the  nividious  dis- 
tinction between  the  Catholic  religion  as  true  and 
Protestantism  as  false.  The  distinction  really  to 
be  observed  is  between  the  Catholic  religion  as 
true  and  Protestantism  as  partly  true.  There  is, 
as  you  perceive,  a  wide  difference  in  the  methods 
of  attack.  One,  I  fear,  has  served  but  to  alienate 
further  from  the  Church  many  good  and  sincere 
people;  the  other  may  be  rendered  capable  of 
drawing  many  to  Her." 

A  useful,  if  not  necessary,  comment  on  the  fore- 
going is  that  it  behooves  the  pastor  who  cultivates 
cordial  and  friendly  relations  with  ministers  of  the 
various  sects  in  his  city,  town,  or  village,  to  see 
that  his  intellectual  equipment  is  not  allowed  to 
deteriorate.  The  day  of  the  crude,  uneducated, 
often  illiterate,  Protestant  preacher  has  practically 
passed  away;  and  the  Episcopalian,  Presbyterian, 
Baptist,  or  Congregationalist  minister  who  is  our 
neighbor  and  our  possible  friend  may  well  be  a 
thoroughly  cultured,  university-bred,  versatile, 
widely-read,  all-round  scholar.  It  is  accordingly 
incumbent  on  the  priest  who  comes  in  contact 
with  him,  either  in  private  or  semi-public  discus- 
sions, to  have  at  his  finger-tips,  not  only  the  old- 
time  arguments  in  favor  of  the  Church,  but  the 
correct  answers  to  the  latest  sophistical  conten- 


! 
ill 


f 


I 


148 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tions  of  rationalism,  pseudo-science.  Christian 
Science,  New  Thought,  etc.,  etc.  His  reading  must 
be  up  to  date.  While  his  familiarity  with  the 
handbooks  commonly  profTered  to  prospective  con- 
verts may  be  taken  for  granted,  he  has  not  always 
perhaps  at  hand  such  useful  books  as  "Catholic 
Flowers  from  Prote?*ant  Gardens,"  "Tributes  of 
Protestant  Writers,"  "Outside  the  Walls,"  and  sim- 
ilar collections  of  non-Catholic  encomiums  on 
Catholic  doctrine,  devotion,  or  practice.  Most  men 
who  have  had  any  experience  in  polemics  are 
aware  that  a  not  ineffective  controversial  weapon 
is  the  authority  of  one  of  our  opponent's  recog- 
nized leaders  aptly  and  tellingly  quoted  against 
the  position  taken  by  our  opponent  himself.  Apart 
from  their  utility  as  auxiliaries  in  argumentation, 
such  books,  loaned  or  given  to  non-Catholic 
friends,  can  scarcely  fail  to  weaken  prejudice, 
lessen  intolerance,  and  stimulate  the  Protestant 
mind  to  salutary  cogitation. 

There  is  one  other  consideration  worth  while 
emphasizing  in  connection  with  the  priest's  atti- 
tude toward  those  of  his  friends,  acquaintances, 
and  fellow-townsmen  who  do  not  belong  to  the  vis- 
ible body  of  the  Church:  he  can  pray  for  them, 
pray  habitually  and  fervenUy.  In  Leo  XIII's  En- 
cyclical, Sapientiae  Christianae,  we  read :  "In  the 
duties  that  join  us  to  God  and  to  the  Church,  the 
greatest  thing  to  be  noted  is  that  in  the  propaga- 
tion of  Christian  truth  every  one  of  us  should  labor 
as  far  as  lies  in  his  power."  Now,  irrespective 
of  the  validity  or  the  ineptitude  of  the  grounds  on 
which  a  given  pastor  may  seek  to  justify  his  fail- 


THE  PRIEST    AND   NON-CATHOLICS    149 


ure  to  treat  non-Catholics  with  the  kindness  and 
affability  advocated  in  this  chapter,  he  can  assur- 
edly give  no  plausible  reason  for  neglecting  this 
charitable  duty  of  prayer  for  those  outside  the 
fold.    In  his  daily  visit  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
or  in  the  privacy  of  his  oratory  at  night  prayer, 
he   may  fittingly   voice   the   petition   which   the 
Church  herself  solemnly  chants  on  Good  Friday: 
"Let  us  also  pray  for  heretics  and  schismatics: 
that  our  Lord  and  God  would  deliver  them  from 
all  their  errors,  and  vouchsafe  to  call  them  back 
to  our  holy  Mother,  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church.    ....  Almighty  and  everlasting  God, 
who  savest  all  men,  and  desirest  not  that  any 
should  perish:  look  down  on  such  souls  as  are 
deceived  by  the  wiles  of  the  devil;  that,  laying 
aside  all  heretical  perverseness,  the  hearts  of  those 
who  are  in  error  may  be  converted,  and  may  re- 
turn to  the  unity  of  Thy  truth."    This  much  at 
least,  fervent  and  frequent  prayer,  would  seem  to 
be  the  minimum  of  apostolic  effort  congruous  to 
the  priest  living  among  those  "other  sheep"  whom 
Christ  longs  so  ardently  to  see  gathered  into  His 
own  fold;  but  thrice  happy  the  really  zealous  pas- 
tor who  supplements  fervent  prayer  by  effective 
works,  who   treats   his   Protestant   neighbors   as 
friends  whom  he  hopes  to  see  become  one  day  his 
spiritual  children:  he  is  taking  long  steps  toward 
the  eventual  fulfilment  of  his  hope,  the  realization 
of  his  priestly  purpose  in  a  glorious  harvest  of 
souls. 


■f^J:  1 


! '    >, 


THE   PRIEST'S  HOUSEKEEPER 


Who  shall  find  a  valiant  woman  f  Far  and  from  the  utter- 
most coasts  is  the  price  of  her. — Proverbs:  xxxl,  10. 

It  has  often  been  said — and  by  thoi<e  who  know  what  thej  are 
talking  about — that  many  a  priest  has  filled  an  untimely  grave  as 
the  result  of  the  badly  cooked  food  served  to  him  year  after  year 
by  the  incompetent  person  in  charge  of  his  domestic  arrangements. 
— Australian  Priest-Editor. 

As  a  rule,  priests  do  not  want  to  train  their  housekeepers, 
so-called.  But  what  they  do  want,  and  usually  inquire  for,  is  a 
reliable  person  who  knows  how  to  cook,  understands  how  to  keep 
household  affairs  in  proper  order,  and  is  willing  to  take  upon  her 
the  entire  responsibility  of  the  parochial  home,  for  a  just  reiurn 
of  wages.— J.  A.,  O.  S.  B. 


WHILE  the  chief  concern  of  every  mortal,  and 
especially  every  priest,  should  undoubtedly 
be  the  state  of  hi&  (  al,  life  must  still  be  lived  and 
our  salvation  be  worked  out  within  the  limitations 
fixed  for  us  by  God  Himself.  Our  nature  being 
human,  not  angelic,  our  activities  cannot  well  be 
exclusively  sniritual  (though  they  should  all  con- 
duce to  spiritual  progress),  but  must  necessarily 
be  concerned,  now  with  the  things  of  the  mind, 
now  with  those  of  the  body.  All  our  spirituality, 
whether  we  call  it  growth  in  holiness,  progress 
towards  perfection,  intensifying  our  interior  life. 
Christian  asceticism,  or  by  any  other  name,  is  in 
fact  conditioned  by  our  mental  faculties  and  our 
physical  organs.  The  interdependence  of  body, 
mind,  and  soul  has  never  been  overlooked  by 
either  the  expert  psychologist  or  the  ascetic  or 
mystic  theologian ;  and  the  most  truly  symmetrical 

ISO 


THE    PRIESTS    HOUSEKEEPER 


151 


existence  here  below  is  accordingly  one  in  which 
a  faith-illumined  soul  infonns  and  dominates  a 
sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  "Without  good  liv- 
ing," says  a  modern  philosopher,  "there  can  be 
no  good  thinking,  and— I  speak  it  reverently — no 
good  praying;  for  mind  and  soul  must  have  some- 
thing healthy  to  go  upon."  Few  moralists  will 
deny  the  substantial  truth  of  this  dictum,  and  none 
will  challenge  the  assertion  that  the  good,  or  bad, 
"living"  of  the  priest  is  dependent  in  a  very  large 
measure  on  the  competency  or  the  inefficiency  of 
his  housekeeper. 

The  domestic  economy  of  a  clerical  house  being 
one  of  those  subjects  of  immediate  and  perennial 
interest  to  priests,  coming  home,  as  the  Baconian 
phrase  has  it,  to  our  "business  and  bosoms,"  one 
might  naturally  expect  to  see  it  treated,  in  books 
and  periodicals  specifically  intended  for  clerical 
readers,  much  more  frequently  than  is  the  case, 
at  least  in  this  country.    An  examination  of  the 
general  index  for  the  first  fifty  volumes  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  Review,  for  instance,  discloses  only 
two  articles  professedly  dealing  with  the  subject; 
and  both  appeared  in  Vol.  X,  as  long  ago  as  1894. 
The  first  of  the  two,  "A  Training  School  for  Paro- 
chial Housekeepers,"  is  an  exposition  (by  Father 
Jenkins,  of  St.  Lawrence,  Kentucky)  of  a  project 
to  devise  means  for  the  establishment  of  an  insti- 
tute destined  to  equip  and  supply  priests'  house- 
keepers; the  second  is  a  brief  discussion  of  that 
project  by  a  Benedictine  Father  who  wrote  "to 
prevent  a  good  idea  from  perishing  at  its  birth." 
Perish,  however,  it  apparently  did;  for  no  further 


3     *  • 


if 


m 


E.y=ya..i4in 


!ii| 


Iff 

I' 


152 


SACKRDo        .    SAFF. GUARDS 


refereni  •  is  niuut*  to         n>        '•  in      ly  of  the  si  >- 
sequt  nt  I'irty  vc  unit     oi  .^evi        and  Fathf t 

JenkiiiS  v  nt  ii       ^he  1     ise  y,{  his  t      nity  without 
<eeing  »>  v  pr»       .il  t     dization  of  iiis  cherished 
hopes    or  a  M^  -  ttia  Institute. 

And  yt  t,         fly  two  decades  before  the  K<  n- 
tuckv    cleric     igiiated    the    question,    there    v  )s 
'  neighboring  Dominion  a  reii     ms 
ed  to  solve  in  many  places  .  '^ 

s  country  just  such  a  problem  .. 
ihe     -ttle  Sisters  of  the  Holy  Famii 


founded  in  tf 
inf    lute  des 
Cai. ada  ^h 
had  in  u 


'lit) 

Establisi  .=*  >rima  ily  to  attend  to  the  domes 
e  onomy  or  houseiiold  work  of  colleges  conducted 
by  the  Fofhers  of  Holy  Cross,  the  institute  has 
wic  tied  iis  scope  with  successive  years  until  its 
mci  hers  are  at  present  found  charged  with  the 
'luustkeepiig  not  only  of  \  rijus  colleges  and 
semin  ies.  but  of  archiepiscopal  and  episcopal 
reside!  -es,  and  of  rectories  sufHciently  important 
to  reqii  <  the  sei-vices  of  several  of  the  Sisters. 
When  the  late  Cardinal  Falconio,  as  first  Apostolic 
Delegate  to  Canada,  resided  in  Ottawa,  his  house- 
keepers were  members  of  this  community;  and  he 
was  ever  afterwards  a  warm  eulogist  of  their  effi- 
ciency, religious  simplicity,  and  common  sense. 
On  the  occasion  of  one  of  his  visits  to  Notre  Dame 
during  his  term  of  office  as  Apostolic  Delegate  to 
this  country,  he  was  asked  by  the  present  writer 
whether  the  Little  Sisters  liad  charge  of  his  resi- 
dence in  Washington.    "No,"  iie  replied,  "and  I 

»  Founded  at  M^mramcook,  New  Brunswick,  by  Father  Camtlle 
Lefebvre.  C.  S.  C.  and  Sister  Mary  Leonle,  of  the  Sisters  of  Holy 
Croas,  Notre  Dame,  Indiana.  Approved  by  Bishop  La  Rocque,  of 
Sherbrooke,  P.  Q.,  the  community  now  has  Its  Motherhouse  and 
Novitiate  In  that  prelate's  episcopal  see. 


THE    PRIKT'S    HOUSEKEEPER  153 


miss  them  very  much.  My  domestic  aflfairs  were 
J  .  ver  looked  after  so  satisfactorily  as  while  I  lived 
j  1  Ottawa." 

bimilar  religious   institutes,  founded   on   this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  or  imported  from  European 
countries,  are  rendering  much  the  same  services, 
at  least  as  regards  seminaries  and  colleges,   in 
more  than  one  diocese  in  Canada  and  the  United 
States;  and  the  employment  of  their  members  in 
such    rectories    or    parish    houses    as    need    the 
services  of  three  or  four  women  would  seem  to  be 
as  near  an  approach  to  the  ideal  solution  of  the 
priests'  housekeeping  problem  as  is  likely  to  be 
discovered.     In  so  far  as  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  American  pastors  are  concerned,  however, 
such  a  solution  is  of  course  impracticable.    What 
the  average  priest  in  this  country  needs  is,  in  real- 
ity, not  a  housekeeper  proper,  a  superintendent 
of  several  domestic  servants,  but  rather  a  maid  of 
all  work—  count* 

Rouncewc'  H 

or  less  d 
One  won, 

about  all  '^^ 

especial!  '' 

all  the  \  ii  1       o 

no  religiouh       amun  'Ui 

fill  such  positions,  entuiling  the 
instead  of  in  bands  of  severa 
average  priest  must  look  elsewhere  for  the  cupply 
of  his  needs.  As  one  of  the  prevalent  hobbies,  or 
fads,  of  our  day  is  vocational  training,  perhaps  the 
project  of  the  Kentucky  priest  whom  we  ha^  n- 


f  ine  old  Mrs. 
'■  the  more 
r       fe." 
der 

'    :  it 

Oi   vloualy. 

Its  Sisters  to 
ing  separately 
gether;  so  our 


{ ti 


154 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tioned  may  be  revived,  and  result  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  quasi-religious  society,  a  modified  Third 
Order  of  some  kind,  that  will  furnish  to  the  paro- 
chial clergy  in  bo*^  urban  and  rural  districts  such 
competent,  economical,  discreet  "valiant  women" 
as  are  desiraiiie  in  all  priestly  homes. 

In  the  meantime,  the  cleric  who  has  been  pro- 
moted from  a  curacy  to  a  pastorate,  and  blithely 
prepares  to  set  up  housekeeping  on  his  own  ac- 
count, must  fain  make  the  best  of  conditions  as 
he  finds  them,  take  what  he  can  get  rather  than 
what  he  would  prefer  in  the  matter  of  a  feminine 
auxiliary,  and  trust  to  Providence  that  his  selec- 
tion may  prove  at  least  tolerable.  It  ought  to  be 
axiomatic  that  his  choice  should  conform,  so  far 
as  is  at  all  possible,  to  the  disciplinary  regulations 
of  the  Church,  the  requirements  of  Canon  Law,  or, 
what  comes  to  the  same  thing,  the  prescriptions 
of  national  ecclesiastical  councils  and  the  synods 
of  his  own  diocese.  It  will  simplify  our  summary 
rather  than  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject, 
and  lend  some  adventitious  importance  to  that 
treatment,  if  we  transcribe  forthwith  the  particular 
decree  of  the  Third  Plenarj'  Council  of  Baltimore 
that  deals  with  our  specific  topic : 


,  ■  ! 


Quia  satis  non  est  nullum  in  clero  admit- 
tere  crimen,  sed  vel  levissimam  criminis  sus- 
picionem  procul  arcere  omnio  oportet, 
Episcopos  in  Domino  monemut.,  ut  decreti 
Praedecessorum  Nostrorum  de  clericorum 
cum  mulieribus  consortio  executioni  sedulo 
firmiterque  invi^lent.  "Volumus  igitur  impri- 
mis, ut  saeculorium  mulierum,  nc  suis  quioem 


THE   PRIEST'S    HOUSEKEEPER 


155 


exceptis,  consortio  et  familiaritate  nimia  ne 
utatur  (sacerdos) ;  neque  eas,  licet  propinqua 
cognationc  conjunctas,  in  eadem  secum  domo 
commorari  sinat,  nisi  fuerint  vita  et  moribus 
spectatissiniae,    quaeque    nuUo    modo,    sive 
directo,  sive  indirecto,   se   sacris  muneribus 
gerendis  aut  rebus  ecclesiae   administrandis 
inimisceant.     Oeconomam,  ancillam,  aliamve 
famulam  nullam  habeat,  nisi  quae  sit  niaturi- 
oris    aetatis    faniaque    integerrima    gaudeat. 
Nunquam  coram  illis  aut  propinquis,  si  quas 
apud  se  habeat,  de  gregis  regimine,  de  eccle- 
siae negotiis,  de  parochianorum  vitiis  aut  de- 
fectibus  verba  facial."     (No.  164.)    Praetcrea, 
ad   multiplicis   generis    incommoda    vitanda, 
Nostra  facimus  verba   Patrum   Concilii   Plen. 
Hibernici  apud  Maynutiam,  scil.,  "nullus  paro- 
chus    .    .     .     retineat  in  domo  sua  familias 
afiinium    aut    consanguineorum.     Quodsi    in 
eadem  domo  cum  parocho  habitent  ejus  coad- 
jutores    .     .    .    volumus  ut  parochi  in  prae- 
dicta    domo   nullo   modo   consanguincas    vel 
affines    juniores    retineant,    nisi    permittente 
Ordinario."     (No.  126.) 

A  study  of  the  foregoing  prescriptions,  both  as 
to  the  mature  age  of  housekeepers  and  the  ques- 
tion of  having  as  inmates  of  a  priest's  house  blood- 
relations  or  other  kindred,  may  perhaps  create,  in 
the  minds  of  experienced  clerics  fqmiliar  with  the 
conditions  actually  prevailing  in  many  an  Ameri- 
can presbytery,  a  doubt  whether  this  particular 
decree  is  not  "more  honored  in  the  breach  than 
in  the  observance."  As  with  another  prescription 
of  tb  J  Third  Plenary  Council,  however — that  call- 
ing for  the  establishing  of  a  parish  school  within 
two  years  of  the  promulgation  of  the  decree  rela- 


r  if 
1-4 


P 


156 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tive  thereto — major  difficulties  in  the  way  of  entire 
conformity  to  its  provisions  have  doubtle»is  icd 
Ordinaries  to  overlook  some  violations  of  the  letter 
of  the  law.  For  that  matter,  many  priests  could 
probably  plead  with  truth  as  an  excuse  or  justifica- 
tion for  such  violation  Shakespeare's  saying, 
"Nature  must  obey  necessity,"  or  Rabelais*  varia- 
tion thereof,  "Necessity  knows  no  law." 

The  custom  of  having  relatives,  near  or  remote, 
as  their  housekeepers,  or  at  least  as  inmates  of 
their  homes,  is  not  only  followed  in  practice  by 
many  of  the  American  clergy,  but  is  approved  in 
theory  by  some  accredited  authors  of  clerical  hand- 
books.  Father  Miiller,  for  instance,  in  part  ii,  vol- 
ume 1,  of  "The  Catholic  Priesthood"  says:    "Many 
good  priests  keep  their  relatives  in  the  house  with 
them.    This  custom  no  one  can  blame.    A  good 
mother  or  sister  in  the  house  is  often  an  excellent 
safeguard."    He  adds,  it  is  true,  a  caution :    "The 
good  priest  should  take  care,  however,  that  they 
arc  .11.'  domineering;  that  they  are  not  tattlers  or 
sea*  <[');  mongers;  and  especially  that  they  do  not 
give  ^  andal."    A  rather  obvious  comment  on  this 
advice  is,  that  if  the  priest,  presumably  cognizant 
of  his  relatives'  characters  and  tendencies,  foresees 
the  danger  of  any  such  action  on  their  part,  he  will 
best  consult  the  interests  of  his  parish,  and  his  own 
as  well,  by  seeing  to  it  that  they  reside  elsewhere 
than  in  the  presbytery.    It  will  prove  much  easier 
to  keep  mischief-making  relations  out  of  his  house 
in  the  first  instance  than  to  remedy  their  mischief 
or  rid  himself  of  their  presence  when  once  their 
footing  in  the  house  has  been  established. 


THE   PRIEST'S   HOUSEKEEPER 


157 


The  anonymous  author  of  a  German  work, 
translated  under  the  title,  "Rules  for  the  Pastor  of 
Souls."  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers  Slat'  :  and  Ranch,  is 
more  cordial  in  his  approval  of  the  custom,  and 
d^'ells  at  considerable  length  on  its  advantages. 
E  /en  at  the  risk  of  treating  our  readers  to  a  twice- 
told  tale,  we  subjoin  a  few  extracts  from  the  work : 

"It  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  inten- 
tions of  our  holy  Mother  the  Church  that 
priests  should  take  a   relation,   especially  a 

Eious  mother  or  God-fearing  sister,  into  their 
ouse.  She  is  chiefly  guided  by  the  conviction 
that  thereby  the  safety  of  your  sacerdotal  life 
is  best  guaranteed  and  that  you  are  guarded 
against  many  temptations  and  dangers  which 
you  might  incur  if  a  stran'(er  were  to  look 
after  you.    .    .     .    Who  couiu  'lave  your  truly 

griestiy  dignity,  your  good  reputation,  and 
lamelessness  m  ever\'  respect  more  at  heart 
than  a  good  mother  or  a  virtuous  sister? 
.  .  .  If  a  mother  or  sister  lives  with  you,  the 
whole  atmosphere  of  the  presbytery  will  lose 
a  good  deal  of  its  roughness,  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  a  lonely  life.  They  will  compen- 
sate for  the  want  of  family  life,  as  far  as  this 
is  possible  in  your  circumstances,  and  change 
a  oreary  presbytery  into  a  charming  and  con- 
genial home.  .  .'  .  Mother  and  sister  take 
the  keenest  interest  in  your  welfare,  your 
cares,  and  joys.  Your  happiness  they  make 
their  own,  and  with  your  suflFering  tney  are 
equally  concerned.  .  .  .It  is  so  natural 
and  easy  to  them  to  con:ole  and  encourage 
you  in  the  various  troubU  .  nui  trials  of  your 
vocation.  .  .  .  Finally,  w'-o  i  tuild  replace 
a  mother  or  a  sister  when  \t»u  arc  struck 
down  by  serious  sickness?    ,     .    .    Consider 


■■  iimii  If 


158 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


all  this,  having  before  your  eyes  no  less  your 
eternal  than  your  temporal  welfare,  and  you 
will  find  that  as  a  rule  you  are  best  off  wnen 
your  pious  mother  or  good  sister  looks  after 
.  your  nouschold.  Then  in  truth  you  may  be 
envied;  for  God  has  bestowed  on  you  a  favor 
for  which  vou  can  never  be  sufficiently 
thankful." 

We  have  quoted  at  this  length  in  order  to  pre- 
sent the  case  for  the  advocates  of  priests'  relatives 
for  priests'  housekeepers  with  all  due  fairness,  and 
not  because  we  arc  in  thorough  agreement  with 
the  cited  author's  opinions.    We  know  a  consid- 
erable   number    of   experienced    and    exemplary 
clerics  who,  while  admitting  of  course  that  the 
plan  proffers  many  advantages,  are  fully  convinced 
that  these  arc  offset  by  so  many  practically  un- 
avoidable    drawbacks,     inconveniences,     annoy- 
ances, and  hampering  difficulties  as  to  render  it 
extremely  doubtful  that  a  priest  is  best  off  when 
his  domestic  affairs  arc  in  charge  of  some  one  near 
and  dear  to  him.     And  that  something  may  be  said 
for  this  latter  view  no  judicious  reader  will  deny. 
The  good  government  of  his  parish  should  ob- 
viously be  a  matter  of  more  import  to  a  pastor 
than  the  comfort  of  his  relatives  or  the  satisfac- 
tion of  his  own  natural  affection  for  them.    The 
priesthood  is  confessedly  a  life  of  sacrifice  and 
renunciation.    To  the  man  who  serves  the  altar, 
with  more  significance  than  to  the  generality  of 
His  followers,  Christ  says:    "He  that  loveth  father 
or  mother  more  than  Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me." 
Filial  affection  is  most  commendable  in  priests  as 
in  others,  but  when  a  particular  method  of  mani- 


THE    PRIEST'S   HOUSEKEEPER 


159 


festing  that  aftcction  is,  or  is  likely  to  be,  inimical 
to  the  interests  of  God  and  the  good  of  souls  com- 
mitted to  our  charge,  some  other  method  (and 
available  ones  are  never  wanting)  may  well  be 
preferred.  Father  Edward  may  be  very  fond  of 
his  sister  Helen  and  anxious  to  provide  for  her 
comfort  and  happiness;  and  yet,  if  Helen  happens 
to  be  somewhat  older  than  himself  and  used  to 
box  his  ears  occasionally  when  he  was  a  little  fel- 
low, he  may  be  pardoned  for  doubting  whether  in 
the  long  run  as  his  housekeeper  her  reverence  for 
his  priestlv  character  would  restrain  her  tendency 
to  lord  it  over  him,  or  "boss"  him,  as  she  used  to 
do  in  h's  youth.  In  such  a  case  it  is  quite  intel- 
ligible that  he  may  prefer  committing  his  house- 
hold management  to  some  other  priest's  sister 
rather  than  to  his  own. 

We  have  no  intention  of  minimizing  the  devot- 
edness  shown  to  their  priestly  sons  or  brothers  by 
many  a  self-sacrificing  woman :  the  records  of 
sacerdotal  lives  in  the  past  and  the  example  of 
numerous  present-day  mothers  and  sisters  who  are 
proving  the  veritable  guardian-angels  of  good, 
hard-working  priests  forbid  our  making  little  of 
their  merits  and  their  virtues.  It  is  no  more  than 
just,  however,  to  remind  the  reader  that  the  terms 
of  the  decree  of  the  Baltimore  Council,  already 
quoted,  clearly  indicate  that  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Fathers  of  that  Council  there  may  well  exist  cases 
in  which  the  absence  of  even  near  relatives  from 
a  pastor's  house  is  more  desirable  than  is  their 
presence  therein.  If  the  happy  personal  experi- 
ence of  the  reader  proves  that  his  own  is  in  no 


#1 

ii 
it 


i     i 


160 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


sense  such  a  case,  then  we  heartily  reecho  the 
advice  of  the  anonymous  German  author,  and  bid 
him  thank  God  for  an  inestimable  favor.* 

With  the  larger  number  of  clerics  throughout 
this  country,  howevi  .  the  suitability  of  relatives 
for  the  position  of  priest's  housekeeper  is  a  purely 
academic  question:  they  have  no  relatives  avail- 
able for  the  office,  and  accordingly  must  make 
their  choice  from  among  strangers,  women  who 
are  neither  kith  nor  kin  to  them.  That  the  choice 
is  not  always  easy  to  make,  or  fortunate  when 
made,  needs  no  telling  either  to  pastors  themselves 
or  to  their  friends.  The  inexperienced  young  pas- 
tor who  sets  himself  to  the  task  is  most  frequently 
taking  chances  in  a  lottery'. 

This  difficulty  of  securing  competent  women  for 
the  management  of  clerical  homes  is  apparently  a 
cosmopolitan  one.  Here,  for  instance,  is  an  edi- 
torial paragraph  that  appeared  originally  in  the 
Catholic  Press,  of  Sydney,  N.  S.  W.,  and  was 
quoted,  as  "fitting  the  situation  to  a  nicety,"  by  the 
Catholic  Register  of  Toronto,  Canada :  "A  woman 
who  runs  a  servants'  registry  office  in  the  city,  talk- 
ing the  other  day  of  the  different  types  of  domestics 
who  pass  through  her  hands,  said  that  all  the  sour- 
faced  old  failures  who  put  their  names  on  her 
books;  the  women  who  can  neither  cook,  nor  wash, 
nor  sew  with  any  degree  of  success;  who  'can't 
abear'  the  sight  of  a  child  about  the  house;  who  are 

1  The  New  Codex  of  Canon  Law.  published  since  this  chapter  was 
written,  says  (Can.  i33.  n):  Elsdem  rclericKsl  Ilcct  mm  lllis  tantuni 
miiMertbus  cohabitai-e  in  (lulbus  naturale  foedus  nihil  mall  permlttit 
suspicarl.  quales  sunt,  mater,  soror.  amita  et  hulusmodl,  aut  a  qutbus 
=Il!^i".*  '"^"'ra  honesta-  c-.im  prf^v.-ptlnrp  aetate  conJuneta,  omncm 
suspiclonem  amoveat. 


\Uik 


THE    PRIEST'S   HOUSEKEEPER 


161 


(i^ 


so  cross-grained  that  anything  in  the  shape  of  an 
order  is  regarded  as  an  insult;  and  who  can't  agree 
with  their  mistresses  on  any  question  remotely  con- 
nected with  work,  express  the  wish  to  become 
priests'  housekeepers!" 

The  Canadian  editor  piously  ejaculates,  "(lod 
help  the  poor  priests!"  and,  not  to  be  outdone  by 
his  Australian  confrere,  recounts  some  of  his  per- 
sonal experiences.  "We  know,"  he  writes,  "many 
excellent  priests  in  this  country  who  have  difli- 
culty — if  they  are  in  the  rural  districts — in  getting 
a  housekeeper  at  all.  The  coterie  always  adver- 
tising as  priests'  housekeepers,  or  haunting  the 
('jors  of  hostels  and  presbyteries  in  the  city  with 
the  desire  to  take  charge  of  priests'  houses,  are 
certainly  what  one  of  our  staflF  calls  another  class 
of  peculiar  persons,  'incongruous  comedians.'  We 
have  come  honrc  after  a  hard  day's  work  to  one  of 
them  and  have  been  set  down  to  a  'cabbage  salad* 
as  the  chief  piece  of  the  dinner — when  we  felt 
that  we  could  despatch  a  whole  partridge;  and 
this  Barmecide  feast  was  put  up  to  us  with  a  sang- 
froid that  was  imperturbable.  This  lady,  for  so 
she  styled  herself,  came  to  us  with  a  half  dozen 
recommendations  from  priests — and  went  without 
any." 

While  the  paragraphs  of  both  these  clerical 
journalists  may  seem  to  savor  somewhat  of  cari- 
oatnre,  each  suggests  so  general  a  likene^  ,  to  their 
subjects  as  to  make  the  latter  easily  recognizable 
by  any  reader  of  mature  years  and  ordinary  ex- 
perlvace.  There  is,  it  is  true,  another  and  entirely 
different   type   of  priestly  housekeepers,   a   type 

11 


■■ 


4-  ' 


.r^ 


162 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


which,  if  not  so  common  as  to  prove  the  rule,  is 
yet  sufficiently  in  evidence  to  constitute  a  notable 
number  of  thoroughly  admirable  exceptions.  We 
have  all  met  them,  either  in  our  own  homes 
(where  possibly  they  have  not  always  been  duly 
appreciated),  or  in  the  presbyteries  of  brother 
priests  whom,  it  may  be,  we  have  envied  for  the 
all-round  proficiency  and  unobtrusive  excellence 
of  their  domestic  economy.  Good  cooks,  econom- 
ical managers,  capable  laundresses  and  needle- 
women, prompt  attendants  on  door-bell  or  tele- 
phone ring,  tidy  chambermaids,  quick-handed 
waitresses,  neatly  dressed,  serene  in  manner,  re- 
served in  speech,  of  inexhaustible  patience  and 
well-ordered  piety,  and  knowing  their  place — such 
women  are  to  be  found  in  every  diocese,  and,  ver- 
ily, "far  and  from  the  uttermost  coasts  is  the  price 
of  them."  Happy  the  cleric  who  enjoys  the  minis- 
trations of  one  of  these :  he  may  appropriately  sing 
with  David,  Funes  ceciderunt  mihi  in  praeclaris, 
"The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me  in  goodly  places." 

As  for  the  less  adequately  served  cleric  whose 
daily  domestic  worries  prompt  him  to  exclaim  with 
St.  Paul,  "In  all  things  we  suffer  tribulations,"  with- 
out being  able  to  add  the  great  Apostle's  assertion, 
"but  are  not  distressed,"  he  is  assuredly  deserving 
of  commiseration,  all  the  more  so  if  his  ineffectual 
remonstrances  to  a  self-willed,  domineering,  or 
capricious  housekeeper  have  led  him  to  yield  pessi- 
mistic assent  to  the  old-time  quatrain : 

Where  is  the  man  who  has  the  power  and  skill 

To  stem  the  torrent  of  a  woman's  willt 

For  if  she  will,  she  will,  you  may  depend  on't; 

And  if  she  won't,  she  won't;  so  there's  an  end  on't. 


iiSTTv^afcTTTB 


THE   PRIEST'S   HOUSEKEEPER 


163 


Such  pessimism,  commonly  expressed  by  the  rhet- 
orical interrogation.  What's  the  use?  is  not  to  be 
commended.  While  a  pastor  should  doubtless 
show  all  due  consideration  to  his  servants  and 
treat  them  with  the  fullest  measure  of  Christian 
charity  and  sacerdotal  kindness,  it  is  nevertheless 
incumbent  upon  him  occasionally  to  make  it  un- 
mistakably clear  to  them  that,  after  all,  they  are 
servants  and  that  he  is  the  master.  As  St.  Paul 
wrote  to  Timothy,  "If  a  man  know  not  how  to  rule 
his  own  house,  how  shall  he  take  care  of  the  church 
of  God?"  If  he  chances  to  be  of  an  ascetic  tem- 
perament, prompt  to  seize  occasions  for  morti- 
fication and  self-denial,  an  incompetent  house- 
keeper will  unquestionably  afford  him  ample 
opportunity  to  indulge  to  the  full  his  liking  for 
crosses,  vexations,  and  trials  of  temper;  and  by 
accepting  all  these  as  merciful  dispensations  of 
Providence,  he  may  clearly  acquire  considerable 
merit.  The  average  priest,  however,  can  scarcely 
be  expected  to  allow  his  housekeeper  to  fill  the  role 
of  a  living  discipline  or  hair  shirt.  He  probably 
believes  that  his  ministry  furnishes  him  with  a 
plentiful  supply  of  unavoidable  crosses,  and  that 
he  is  entitled  to  a  certain  degree  of  comfort  and 
ease  within  the  walls  of  his  presbytery. 

There  are  some  failings  of  housekeepers,  in- 
deed, tolerance  of  which  can  be  defended  on  no 
valid  ground,  whether  of  a  pastor's  forgetfulness 
of  self,  or  his  kindliness  of  heart,  or  his  spirit  of 
indifference.  What  concerns  himself  exclusivelj 
he  may  perhaps  meritoriously  overlook;  what 
tends  injuriously  to  affect  his  relations  with  his 


164 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


people  or  to  introduce  discord  into  parish  circles, 
he  cannot  conscientiously   refrain   from   putting 
an  end  to.    That  his  housekeeper  serves  him  with 
a  "cabbage  salad"  instead  of  a  well-broiled  steak, 
habitually  fails  to  clearstarch  his  collars,  period- 
ically upsets  the  papers  and  letters  on  his  roller- 
top  desk,  and  neglects  to  keep  his  cossack  in  good 
repair — all  this  he  may,  if  he  will,  condone;  but 
that  she  meddles  with  matters  purely  ecclesiastical, 
goes  gossiping  and   tale-bearing  from   house   to 
house,  or  entertains  congenial  scandal-mongers  in 
the  kitchen  or  her  room — this,  and  such  like  con- 
duct, he  is  imperatively  called  upon  to  check,  even 
should  the  checking  necessitate  his  discharging  the 
offender.    There  may  be  strong  and  suflicient  rea- 
sons for  a  parish  priest's  disregarding  the  strict 
letters  of  the  clause,  "nisi  quae  sit  maturioris  aeta- 
tis,"  in  the  decree  cited  on  a  former  page — the 
impossibility  of  securing  one  of  canonical  age,  for 
instance;  but  there  are  none  for  the  violation  of 
this  injunction  regarding  the  secular  inmates  of  a 
presbytery,  "nullo  modo,  sive  directo,  sive  indi- 
recto,  se  sacris  muneribus  gerendis  aut  rebus  eccle- 
siae  administrandis  immisceant." 

It  is  perhaps  obvious  to  remark  that  the  aver- 
age priest's  housekeeper  is  not  likely  to  meddle 
with  parish  business  or  distinctively  church  mat- 
ters unless  the  pastor  himself  has  imprudently 
broached  such  topics  to  her,  or  still  more  impru- 
dently discussed  with  her  the  character  and  con- 
duct, faults  and  failings,  of  the  parishioners  The 
normal  Catholic  woman,  in  ov  out  of  a  presbytery, 
will  not  gratuitously  proffer  counsel  on  matters 


THE   PRIEST'S   HOUSEKEEPER 


165 


purely  ecclesiastical  or  administrative  to  pastor  or 
curate;  the  exceptional  few  who  are  inclined  to  do 
so  may  very  easily  be  put  in  their  place  if  only  the 
priest  keeps  his  place  also.    "There  are  occasions," 
says  Canon  Keatinge,  "when  the  priest  is  tired.    He 
is  alone,  and  time  hangs  heavily  on  his  hands,  and 
the  habit  easily  grows  of  finding  his  way  to  the 
kitchen  with  or  without  an  excuse.    Be  sure  of  it, 
he  Is  always  welcome,  but  he  will  pay  for  it." 
Occasionally  the  process  is  reversed :  instead  of  the 
pastor's  making  his  way  to  the  kitchen,  the  house- 
keeper makes  her  way  to  the  office  or  study,  quite 
possibly  for  a  legitimate  purpose  which  could  be 
accompHshed  in  two  or  three  minutes,  but  which 
serves  as  an  excuse  for  a  prolonged  conversation 
neither  necessary  nor  profitable  to  either  of  them. 
Discussing  the  general  subject  of  the  priest's 
attitude  toward  women,  the  English  author  just 
mentioned    remarks    that   "two  women    in    your 
house  are  better  than  one."    Were  there  any  need 
of  demonstrating  the  judiciousness  of  the  remark, 
one  would  merely  have  to  quote  the  old-time  rustic 
proverb:  "Two  is  compaay;  three  is  none."  There 
was   ■  substratum  of  sound  philosophy  in  the  ap- 
parently purely  jocular  reply  of  a  clerical  friend 
of  ours  to  his  Ordinary's  comment  on  the  youthful- 
ness  of  our  friend's  housekeeper.    "Why,"  said  the 
prelate,  "she  can't  be  more  than  twenty."— "But, 
you  see,  Bisliop,"  replied  Father  S.,  "1  have  two 
young  housekeepers,  and  their  combined  years  give 
more  than  the  canonical  age."    Beyond  all  ques- 
tion the  danger  of  relaxation,  remissness,  impru- 
dences, or  familiarities  is  much  less  when  in  the 


,1     ' 


^.i 


166 


SACERDOTAL  .SAFEGUARDS 


presbyterj'  there  are  several  of  "the  devout  female 
sex"  than  when  pastor  and  housekeeper  are  its 
only  inmates,  solus  cum  sola.  To  guard  against 
all  such  dangers  as,  given  our  human  nature  and 
the  inevitable  consetfucnces  of  original  sin,  are 
inherent  in  even  our  necessary  intercourse  with 
members  of  the  other  sex,  we  need  to  employ  the 
nntural  preservative-  s  If-respect,  a  becoming 
sense  of  our  priestly  o^Tni;*.  iiibitual  circumspec- 
tion, and  uniform  custt  <  \  at  {'»<:  eyes  and  tongue. 
And,  to  make  assurance  <  <  mtr  safety  doubly  sur.. 
we  must  be  assiduous  iii  \c.i*i  and  mental  pr^rvcr, 
and  sincerely  devoted  to  the  exemplar  .'  .<» 
guardian  of  the  holy  virtue,  our  Immaculate 
Mother  Mary. 


LIVING  BY  THK  GOSPEL. 


So  also  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  who  prearh  the  go«r«l 
should  live  by  the  gospel.— i  Cor.:  ix,  11. 

W.alth  id  the  Conjurer V  IVvil, 
Whom,  when  he  thinks  he  hath,  the  Devil  Ym'.v  him. 
Gold  thou  mayst  safely  touch;  but  if  it  ftick 
Unto  thy  hamlH,  it  wonndeth  to  th*-  i|uiek. 

— Georgt  Herbert. 

Money  never  made  a  man  happy  y^-t,  nor  will  it  Ther''  is 
nothing  in  its  nature  to  produce  happiness.  The  more  a  nun  has, 
the  more  he  wi.t-.  Instead  of  filling  a  vacuum,  i  nmkcn  ore. 
If  it  satisfies  Oa.  want,  it  doub'^s  and  trebles  that  want  another 
way.  That  was  a  true  proverb  of  the  wise  man,  rely  upon  it: 
"Better  is  little  with  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  than  great  treasure, 
and  trouble  therewith." — Benjamin  Franklin. 

«iy/rONEY'S  the  root  of  all  evil;  givo  us  some 
IVl  more  root,"  said  big  Father  Meah-y  with  « 
whimsical  smile,  as  he  helped  himself  to  a  second 
cigar  and  cast  a  sidelong  glance  at  Father  O'Cal- 
laghan,  who  had  just  been  inveighing  against  what 
he  termed  an  altogether  too  common  practice 
among  priests,  that  of  continually  nagging  the 
people  about  the  coin  of  the  realm. 

"Yora  quotation's  not  straight,  Mealey,"  re- 
marKcd  Dean  Morrison,  in  whose  study  the  trio 
were  sitting;  "'tis  the  desire,  or  love,  of  money, 
not  money  itself,  that  St.  Paul  characterizes  as  the 
root  of  all  evil:  and  history  as  well  as  our  personal 
observation  seems  io  bear  him  out  in  his  asser- 
tion." 

"Yes;  I  know  it,"  rejoined  the  first  speaker;  "but 
if  Paul  ever  had  a  debt  of  forty  thousand  dollars 
hanging  over  him,  as  I  '  ave  on  my  new  St.  Ber- 

1«7 


t  kl 


168 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


nard's,  he  would  probably  have  been  of  the  same 
mind  concerning  money  as  was  lago  concerning 
wine,  that  it  is  *a  good  familiar  creature,  if  it  be 
well  used.'" 

"That's  rather  begging  the  question  we've  been 
discussing.  Father  Mcaley,"  said  Father  O'Calla- 
ghan.  "In  the  first  place  no  one  claims  that  money 
in  itself  is  an  evil,  and,  in  the  second,  it  won't  do 
to  assume  that  all  pastors  whose  Sunday  sermons 
are  one-sixth  Gospel  and  five-sixths  money  have 
so  legitimate  a  reason  for  desiring  it  as  you  have." 

We  have  no  intention  of  reporting  the  dialogue 
at  further  length,  but  the  portion  of  it  already 
given  may  serve  as  an  introduction  to  a  common- 
sense  discussion  of  a  subject   that  is  not  infre- 
quently treated  at  priests'  retreats  and  is  all  too 
often  a  topic  of  conversation  among  some  priests' 
parishioners.    There  are  certain  truths  connected 
with  the  matter  that  are  called  in  question  by 
nobody.     Even  the  most  censorious  critic  of  the 
"money-grabbing"  priest  does  not  deny,  at  least  in 
theory,  that  the  scriptural  doctrine,  "the  laborer  is 
worthy  of  his  reward,"  is  applicable  to  his  pastor, 
or  that  the  fulfilment  of  the  fifth  commandment  of 
the  Church  requires  the  faithful  to  contribute  to 
the  pastor's  support.    No  one  takes  issue  with  the 
doctrine  which  St.  Paul  taught  to  the  Corinthians, 
that  "those  who  preach  the  gospel  should  live  by 
the  gospel,"  although  a  good  many  commentators, 
clerical  as  well  as  lay,  probably  diflfer  one  from 
another  in  their  interpretation  of  the  word  "live" 
in  the  oft-quoted  text. 


111 


LIVING    BY    THE    GOSPEL 


169 


Preachers  of  the   gospel  have  an  undoubted 
right  to  live  by  it;  but  live  how?    In  decent  pov- 
erty, in  well-to-do  comfort,  or  in  quasi-luxury  ? 
And  just  what  constitutes   each  of  these   three 
states?    Obviously,  there  is  ample  room  for  dif- 
ference of  opinion  among  those  who  undertake  to 
answer  such  questions,  especially  as  to  the  con- 
stituents of  poverty,  comfort,  and  luxur\'.    If  one 
man's  meat  may  be  another  man's  poison,  one 
man's  competency  may  be  another  man's  indigence. 
What  a  city  pastor  considers  the  bare  necessities 
of  life  may  readily  appear  the  luxuries  of  opulence 
to  a  foreign  missionary,  or,  for  that  matter,  to 
many  a  home  missionary  in  the  poorer  dioceses 
of  our  own  country.    Wealth  and  poverty  are  rela- 
tive terms;  and  the  curate  whose  salary  is  only 
two  hundred  a  year  may  for  all  practical  purposes 
be  richer  than  his  pastor  who  annually  draws  five 
or  six  times  that  amount.    In  a  general  way,  how- 
ever, the  three  states  that  we  have  mentioned— 
poverty,  comfort  and  luxury— arc  sufficiently  dif- 
ferentiated to  be  recognizable  by  all;  and  it  would 
be  interesting  to  learn  what  are  the  real  sentiments 
of  our  best  Catholics— that  is,  our  most  pious,  fer- 
vent, conscientious  Catholics,  as  to  which  of  the 
three  is  the  most  congruous  state  or  condition  for 

the  priest. 

While  rrcognizing  no  doubt  that  the  ideal  priest, 
the  closest  possible  human  imitator  of  the  great 
high  priest,  Jesus  Christ,  would  practice  in  dress 
and  food  uiid  lodging  that  grade  of  poverty  the 
example  of  which  was  set  by  our  Lord  and  was 
followed  by  His  Apostles,  and  while  aware  that 


4- 


rr 

1*  ll 


I 


170 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


all  down  the  centuries  there  have  been,  as  there 
are  still,  apostolic  priests  who  have  held  and  hold 
that  ideal  up  to  the  admiration  or,  it  may  be,  the 
scoffmg  of  the  world,  very  few  of  even  our  most 
exemplary  Catholics  to-day  would  declare  that 
such  a  degree  of  mortification  is  an  essential  con- 
dition in  the  life  of  a  goo<l  priest.  Still  fewer, 
however,  it  is  quite  safe  to  assert,  would  admit  that 
the  very  antithesis  of  such  poverty  is  at  all  becom- 
ing to  a  professed  follower  of  our  Saviour,  to  one 
whose  acquired  powers  and  whoso  daily  ministry' 
have  earned  for  him  the  not  inapt  appellation, 
"another  Christ."  The  cleric  whoso  dress  is  fjie 
twenticth-centur\'  equivalent  of  the  "purple  and 
fine  linen"  of  Scripture,  whose  rectory  is  a  mansion 
fitted  up  with  all  the  modern  appliances  conducive 
to  sensuous  enjoyment,  and  whose  table  habitually 
displays  "the  fat  of  the  land,"  may  possess  a  num- 
ber of  notable  virtues  and  acquit  himself  worthily, 
on  the  whole,  of  his  pastoral  duties;  but  ho  is  ob- 
viously a  sadly  inadequate  representative  of  the 
poor  Man  of  Galilee  who  had  not  where  to  lay  His 
head;  and  oven  the  least  observant  of  his  flock  can 
hardly  fail  to  note  the  contrast  between  tlie  gospel 
he  preaches  and  the  life  ho  lives. 

The  middle  term  between  poverty  and  luxury, 
what  we  have  styled  woll-lo-do  comfort,  roprosents 
perhaps,  if  not  the  host  possible,  at  least  11m  best 
practicable,  condition  for  the  priest  of  lo-day;  and 
the  cleric  who  is  content  therewith  is  not  likely  to 
be  very  severely  criticized  by  his  people,  his  ordi- 
nary, or  a  mentor  more  important  than  either,  his 
own  conscience.  To  live  oven  in  comfort,  however, 


LIVING   BY    THE   GOSPEL 


171 


Hi 


one  must  have  money;  and  as  comparatively  few 
American  pritsls  Iiave  been  ordained  titulo  patri- 
monii, it  behooves  the  average  pastor  to  secure  a 
sufliciency  of  financial  supplies  from  those  upon 
whom  the  Church  imposes  the  obligation  of  con- 
tributing to  his  support.  It  need  hardly  be  said 
that  much  depends  on  the  methods  he  adopts  in 
inducing  his  people  to  fulfil  that  obligation. 

It  is  a  commonplace  in  clerical  circles  that,  with 
congregations  of  equal  resources  and  similar  dis- 
positions, one  priest  readily  obtains  all  the  funds 
he  requires  for  the  prosecution  of  his  parish  works 
and  his  own  salary,  although  he  mentions  money 
but  rarely  from  the  altar,  while  his  neighbor  who 
is  continually  making  appeals  or  having  collec- 
tions for  this,  that,  and  the  other  purpose  never 
seems  to  secure  the  half  of  what  he  declares  to  be 
necessary.    Possibly  the  frequency  of  his  appeals 
is  just  the  explanation  of  the  hitter's  ill  success, 
and  perhaps  if  he  would  talk  less  about  money 
he  would  get  more  of  it.    There  is,  no  doubt,  not 
a  little  exaggeration  in  the  comments  passed  by 
some  of  the  laity  on   the  insistence  with   which 
their  pastors  dwell  Simday  after  Sunday  on  the 
perennial  topic  of  financial  needs;  but  it  must  bo 
admitted  on  the  other  hand  thai  occasional  clerics 
do  discuss  the  money  question  from  the  alta.  or 
the    pulpit    with    a    frequency    suggestive    of    the 
Shakespearian     phrase,     "damnable     iteration." 
There  was  a  substratum  of  truth  in  the  reply  of  a 
cynical  Catholic  lawyer  to  the  query,  "What  was 
Father  Blank's  text  this  morning?"    "He  didn't  use 
a  text;  but,  an  appropriate  one  for  the  tirade  he 


•I 
n 


\ 


172 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


gave  us  would  have  been,  'What  doth  it  profit  a 
priest  if  he  win  to  God  the  whole  parish,  and 
suffer  the  loss  of  his  own  pew-rents?' " 

Before  going  further,  let  it  be  said  that  there 
is  one  method  of  treating  the  whole  subject  of 
the  pewV  financial  obligation  to  the  pulpit  that 
is  not  only  quite  unobjectionable  but  is  in  reality 
obligator^'  on   the  elTicient  pastor—his  giving  a 
periodical  sermon  or  a  catechetical  instruction  on 
the  fifth  precept  of  the  Church.    It  is  clearly  part 
of  his  office  to  teach  his  people  their  religious 
duties,  and  his  lucid  and  unimpassioned  explana- 
tion of  this  particular  duty  of  the  lay  Christian 
may  easily  prove  more  effective  in  securing  its 
fulfilment  than  will  reiterated  scoldings  and  bitter 
sarcasms,  not  to  say  vituperation  and  invective,  on 
the  occasion  of  specific  failures  to  meet  the  obliga- 
tion.   That  the  explanation  is  needed  from  time 
to  time  would  seem  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
notions  of  not  a  few  Catholics  on  this  point  are 
hazy  rather  than  distinct.     In  truth,  the  religious 
duty  incumbent  upon  the  laity  to  contribute  to  the 
support  r''  meir  pastors  is  probably  more  imper- 
fec'!,  understood  than  are  most  other  obligations 
of  the  Christian  life. 

One  reason  for  such  imperfect  knowledge  is 
doubtless  the  comparatively  cursor>'  treatment  ac- 
corded to  the  fifth  precept  of  the  Church  by  the 
teacher  in  the  Sunday-school.  As  the  fulfilment 
of  the  precept,  the  contributing  to  the  pastor's 
support,  lacks  the  element  of  actuality  so  far  as 
the  children  of  the  catechism  class  are  concerned, 
the  explanation  usually  given  of  this  command- 


LIVING   BY    THE    GOSPEL 


173 


inent  or  law  of  the  Church  is  probably  more  super- 
ficial than  thorough.  Obedience  thereto  will  not 
become  a  practical  question  for  the  class  until  the 
boys  and  girls  become  men  and  women,  so  the  pre- 
cept docs  not  receive  all  the  attention  and  insist- 
ence that  is  given  to  moral  duties  of  more  imme- 
diate interest  and  import  to  the  young. 

All  loo  often,  apparently,  the  meagre  explana- 
tory' comments  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher  re- 
main unsupplemented  by  intelligent  reading  and 
study  in  maturer  years.  In  any  case,  account  for 
it  as  we  may,  it  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  some 
Catholics  cither  ignore  the  gravity  of  the  obliga- 
tion imposed  upon  them  by  this  particular  law  of 
the  Church,  or,  knowing  full  well  the  strictness  of 
the  obligation,  deliberately  and  dishonestly  shirk 
its  fulfilment.  That  such  persons  form  only  a 
small  minority  of  the  faithful  in  any  one  parish 
or  any  one  diocese  of  the  country  iri  perhaps  quite 
true;  but  their  existence  at  all  is  an  abuse  which 
merits  public  condemnation.  At  the  same  time  it 
is  hardly  fair  to  the  exemplary  parishioners  who 
give  freely  and  cheerfully  of  their  means  for  all 
religious  purposes  that  they  should  be  forced  to 
listen  to  such  condemnation,  instead  of  the  Word 
of  God,  week  after  week  from  January  to  Decem- 
ber. Once  a  year,  perhaps,  in  the  course  of  a 
series  of  instructions  on  the  tommandments  of 
God  and  the  precepts  of  the  Church,  a  set  sermon 
on  the  subject  will  be  appropriate;  and,  as  has 
been  intimated  already,  it  is  likely  to  be  all  the 
more  effectual  because  of  the  preacher's  appearing 
in  the  character  of  an  expositor  of  Christian  doc- 


:|  i\ 


174 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


trine,  not  in  the  role  of  an  importunate  creditor 
or  a  nagging  dun. 

As  for  the  subject  matter  of  such  a  sermon,  no 
priest  presumably  needs  suggestions  as  to  what  he 
should  say.    He  will  naturally  point  out  that  the 
precepts  of  the  Church  are  veritable  laws,  strictly 
binding  on  all  her  subjects.    A  society  established 
by  Christ  in  order  to  lead  men  to  Heaven,  the 
Church  has  undoubted  power  to  make  such  laws 
and  regulafions  «     she  judges  necessary  for  her 
preservation,  her  ^r  )sperity,  and  Hie  attainment  of 
the  end  for  which  sht-  was  instituted.    The  obliga- 
tion imposed  by  her  tifth  precept  is  as  rigorous  as 
that  involved  in  any  of  the  otliers;  and,  according- 
ly, the  lay  Catholic  who  does  not  contribute  in  pro- 
portion to  his  means  to  the  support,  the  congruous 
maintenance,  of  his  parish  priest  is  a  flagrantly  dis- 
honest debtor.    He  is  guilty  of  patent  injustice  and 
is  unquestionably  bound  to  nvike  restitution,  just 
as  he  would  be  were  he  t».  refuse  payment  of  a 
legitimate   debt   to  his   medical   doctor.     It   may 
further  be  pointed  out  th.il  the  layman's  obligation 
to  pay  his  (piota  of  his  pastor's  salary  is  not  de- 
rived from  ecclesiastical  law  only;  it  is  founded 
on  the  natural  law  and  upon  divine  legislation  as 
well.     A  parish  priest's  vocation  obliges  him  to 
attend  to  the  immediate  service  of  God  and  the 
care   of   .souls.     He   is   in    consequence   debarred 
from  seeking  the  emoluments  of  other  professions 
and   of  business   pursuits.     Now,   the    most    <  li- 
mentary  conception  of  justice  clearly  teaches  that, 
being  so  debarred,  lu-  has  ever>'  right  to  look  for 
his  support  to  those  with  whose  spiritual  welfare 


LIVING    BY    THK    (JOSPKL 


175 


i^"i 


he  is  charged,  and  in  wliose  hohalf  he  habitually 
labors.  That  his  right  is  aeknowK-dged  by  divine 
law  is  evident  from  the  prescribed  payment  of 
tithes  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  from  various 
passages  in  the  New  amon^  j)lhrrs,  SI.  Paul's  dt'c- 
laration  that  "they  who  sirvc  llu-  altar  partake 
with  the  altar." 

Ever  so   little   amplification   of    the   foregoing 
points  should  sullice  to  denM)nstrate  lo  the  avoragi* 
congregation    of    Catholics    that,    in    contributing 
their  proportionate  share  to  the  regular  sal.'.ry  ot 
their  pastor,  they  are  performing  an  act.  not  of 
pure  generosity,  but  of  strictest  justice,  and  that 
to  neglect  such  contributing  is  l»)  incur  not  merely 
the  reproach  of  meanness  and  parsimony,  but  the 
stigma  of  unequivocal  dishonesty.    Very  few  <jther 
professional   men   whose   training   for   their   life- 
work  has  been  equally  lengthy  and  arduous,  re- 
ceive so  small  an  income   as  the   priests  of  this 
country'  are  permitted  to  devote  to  their  personal 
use;  and  it  should  not  be  dinieult  to  convince  Cath- 
olics of  ordinary  common  sense  an<l  fair-minded- 
ness that  the  least  they  can  do  (if  only  to  preserve 
their  own  self-respect)   is  to  see     .1  it  that  their 
pastor's  scanty  "enumeration  be  paid  to  him  cheer- 
fully and  promptly. 

Some  clerical  philosophers  of  our  ac(|uaintance 
have  a  theor\'  that  the  ease  or  diHiculty  experi- 
enced by  a  pastor  in  getting  money  from  his  people 
depends  in  a  great  measure,  if  not  entirely,  on  the 
use  of  the  money  when  obtained;  that  the  priest 
who  "does  things"  can  readily  secure  all  the  funds 
he  needs  for  the  upkeep  of  the  church  property 


^U 


if 


176 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUAIiDS 


and  the  prosecution  of  his  various  religious  works; 
and  that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  generosity  of 
a  Catholic  flock  is  the  impression,  rightly  or 
wrongly  entertained,  that  their  pustor  is  more  or 
less  tainted  with  avarice,  is  too  fond  of  lllthy  lucre, 
or,  in  up-to-date  parlance,  is  "out  for  the  money." 
As  regards  the  pastor's  salary,  of  course,  it  is  really 
none  of  the  parishioners'  business  luhat  disposition 
hv  makes  of  it.  The  money  is  his  own;  it  has  been 
well  earned;  and  he  is  clearly  not  accountable  to 
his  people  for  the  manner  in  which  it  is  expended — 
or  possibly  hoarded.  Concerning  other  funds, 
however — money  needed  over  and  above  his  salary 
for  a  dozen  different  purposes,  building,  repairs, 
heating  and  lighting  the  church,  insurance,  con- 
ducting the  school,  etc. — there  is  certainly  a  good 
deal  of  truth  in  the  theorj'  mentioned.  It  is  only 
natural  that  people  should  like  to  see  the  results 
of  their  contributions,  even  to  church  funds;  an<l, 
when  the  results  are  meagre,  future  contributions 
are  likely  to  be  less  in  quantity  and  more  reluc- 
tantly given.  It  is  to  be  noted,  too,  that  the  priests 
who  have  acquired  the  reputation  of  money-grab- 
bers are  not  always  those  wlu)  have  numerous 
works  to  keep  up.  Not  a  few  of  them  seem  far 
more  concerned  about  the  condition  of  the  rector>' 
than  the  state  of  their  church  buildings,  and  the 
one  charity  in  which  some  of  them  appear  to  be 
especiidly  interested  is  that  which  begins  at  home. 
The  mention  of  avarice  in  connection  with 
priests  may  nt  first  blush  appear  strangely  incon- 
gruous and  entirely  uncalled  for.  If  llu  re  is  on 
earth  one  man  who,  more  than  any  other,  should 


msm^'^mi 


■mm 


LIVING   BY    THE   GOSPEL 


17 


in 


Irom  his  education,  his  profession,  his  ingrained 
conviction,  and  his  acquired  knowledge  of  the 
humea  heart,  ho  immune  from  tlic  attacks  of  this 
sordid  vice,  thai  man  is  surely  he  who  has  conse- 
crated 'Js  ■  ""  to  the  service  of  God,  to  the  imita- 
tion o»'  •  i  .  U.  Not  of  an  ordained  pri»st,  hut  of 
an  ordi>."i>  layman,  does  a  secular  writer  declare: 
"There  is,  indeed,  no  more  pitiahle  wretch  thin  the 
man  who  has  mortgaged  himself,  soul  and  body, 
tc  Mammon— in  whom  the  one  giant  passion  for 
gold  has  starved  every  other  affection;  no  more 
painful  spectacle  than  to  see  a  man  dragging  his 
manhood  at  the  heels  of  his  employment,  losing  life 
for  the  sake  of  the  means  of  living,  disregarding 
the  celestial  crown  held  over  his  head,  and  raking 
to  himself  the  straws,  the  small  sticks,  and  the  dust 
of  the  earth.  The  poorest  o(  ib  human  beings  is 
the  man  who  is  rich  in  gold,  but  iiilellecfually  and 
spiritually  bankrupt  /n«(/mj«  inter  opes  inops." 
And  yet,  one  of  the  first  twelve  priests  fell  a  prey 
to  avarice,  althoujii'  his  apostolic  training  had  been 
personally  direc(<  <i  by  Christ  Himself.  The  love 
of  gold,  whicl;  wrought  the  downfall  of  Judas,  is 
at  least  a  danger  to  d-  »ics  of  our  d  iv;  and,  if  rep- 
utable writers  about  tlu-  priestly  life  are  lo  be 
believed,  it  i    a  danger  not  always  avoided. 

Bishop  Moriarty's  "Allocutions"  were  addressed 
to  priests  of  a  country  other  than  ours,  but,  as 
human  nature  is  much  the  same  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  his  words  are  of  generni  rather  than 
local  application;  and  his  testimony  is  to  the  effect 
that  the  laity  have  a  supreme  detestation  for  the 
vice  of  avarice  in  a  priest.    "When  they  talk  of  a 

13 


immmama 


HW!" 


178 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


priest  or  the  priesthood,"  he  writes,  "there  is  no 
more  frequent  subject  of  conversation  than  our 
love  of  money  or  the  amount  of  money  tliat  wc 
receive  or  possess.  They  will  forgive  a  drunken 
priest  and  give  him  help;  they  would  even  shed  a 
pitying  tear  of  sorrow  for  a  fallen  priest;  but  they 
despise  and  hate  an  avaricious  priest.  Avarice 
they  never  pardon,  cither  in  life  or  death.  To 
them  it  is  as  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  It 
is  quite  clear  that  if  the  first  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  admitted  to  Mass  none  who  could  not  pay, 
and  drove  hard  bargains  for  their  presence  at  the 
weddings  of  the  first  Christians,  the  world  would 
never  have  been  converted."  Inferentially  at 
least  the  Bishop  admits  that  the  people  have  some 
grounds  for  imputing  to  occasion:; I  luembers  of  the 
clergy  an  undue,  unpriestly,  and  unforgivable  love 
of  the  "almighty  dollar."  Needless  to  say,  it  is  n 
rare  thing  for  a  priest  to  admit,  even  to  himself, 
that  he  is  really  dominated  by  avarice.  True,  he 
has  some  money  and  is  increasiiii^  his  store  of  it 
from  year  to  year;  but  his  doing  so  is  merely  pru- 
dent foresight,  a  thoroughly  justifiable  laying  by 
of  something  for  n  rainy  day,  a  common-sense  pro- 
vision foi'  his  old  age — in  a  word,  his  money- 
getting  and  money-keeping,  he  tries  to  convince 
himself,  is  so  far  from  being  a  detestable  vice  that 
it  is  really  a  commendable  virtue. 

Accorviing  to  all  the  philosophers  and  moralists, 
avarice  is  peculiarly  the  vice  of  declining  years; 
so  it  finds  its  most  willing  victims  among  elderly 
rather  than  youthful  clerics.  Yet,  on  the  face  of 
it,  th's  is  a  patent  flouting  of  the  dictates  of  com- 


LIVING   BY   THE   GOSPEL 


179 


!   (1 


I 


mon  sense.  Leaving  Christian  morality  altogether 
out  of  the  question,  we  find  such  action  condemned 
even  by  pagan  philosophy.  "Avarice,  in  old  age, 
is  foolish,"  says  Cicero;  "for  what  can  be  more 
absurd  than  to  increase  our  provisions  for  the 
road  the  nearer  we  approach  to  our  journey's 
end?"  As  a  matter  of  sacerdotal  history,  in  this 
or  any  other  country,  how  many  of  the  priests 
who  were  inordinately  fond  of  swelling  their  bank 
accounts,  on  the  plea  of  making  necessary  pro- 
vision for  an  old  age  in  which  they  could  no  longer 
work,  ever  reached  even  incipient  decrepitude? 
At  least  three-fourths  or  five-sixths  of  them  were 
forced  to  bid  an  eternal  good-bye  to  their  accumu- 
lated wealth  before  coming  within  measurable  dis- 
tance of  man's  allotted  three  score  years  and  ten. 
What  better  provision  for  the  twilight  of  a  priestly 
life  can  be  conceived  than  a  filial  trust  in  Divine 
Providence,  a  confident  hope  that  the  Father 
whom  one  is  doing  one's  best  lo  ser\'C  with  fidelity 
will  smooth  the  road  when  the  shadows  begin  to 
lengthen  and  the  tired  feet  grow  heav\'?  Or  who 
with  better  right  than  the  charitable,  compassion- 
ate priest  to  whose  hands  gold  refuses  to  stick,  can 
draw  comfort  from  the  testimony  of  the  royal 
psalmist:  "I  have  been  young,  and  am  now  old; 
and  I  have  not  seen  the  just  forsaken,  nor  his  seed 
seeking  bread"? 

As  opposed  to  the  avarice  which  sometimes  at 
least  ensnares  elderly  clerics,  some  writers  on  the 
sacerdotal  state  mention  extravagance  as  the  vice 
into  which  youthful  priests  are  most  apt  to  be  be- 
trayed in  the  matter  of  their  finances;  and  one 


n 


MICIOCOPY   RfSOUITION  TiST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


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I.I 


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■  4.0 


2.5 

12.2 

2.0 
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1.25 


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180 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


E 


III 


explanation  sometimes  given  for  such  lavish  use, 
or  waste,  of  pecuniary  resources  is  that  the  young 
priest  lins  no  sense  of  the  value  of  money,  that  in 
his  case  there  is  exemplified  the  old  adage,  "Easy 
come,  easy  go."  He  has  never  been  used  to  the 
handling  of  any  considerable  amount  of  money, 
and  so  liis  quarter's  salary  manifests  a  tendency 
to  burn  a  hole  in  his  pocket. 

That  explanation  is  obviously  fallacious  as  ap- 
plied to  a  goodly  number  of  young  American 
priests.  They  do  know  the  value  of  money,  having 
acquired  the  knowledge,  years  before  their  ordina- 
tion, by  the  practical  method  of  earning  a  definite 
number  of  dollars  and  cents  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brows,  or  brains.  Many  of  them  worked  at  trades 
or  in  offices  in  order  to  secure  a  start  in  their 
scholastic  career,  worked  their  way  through  col- 
lege, and  added  to  their  scanty  resources  by  work- 
ing during  the  vacations  of  their  college  and  even 
seminary  years.  The  experience  was  thoroughly 
worth  while  if  it  has  taught  them  that  the  extrava- 
gant use  even  of  one's  own  money  is  sinful,  that 
economy  (a  wholly  different  thing  from  penurious- 
ness)  is  a  virtue,  and  that  if  in  the  case  of  a  pries* 
wilful  waste  does  not  always  bring  woeful  want,  it 
at  least  impedes  generosity  to  one's  friends  and 
charity  to  God's  poor.  Nothing,  by  the  way,  in  the 
conduct  of  a  pastor  more  favorably  impresses  his 
people  than  the  knowledge  that  much  of  the  money 
which  he  receives  from  his  wealthy  or  well-to-do 
parishioners  finds  it  way  quietly  and  unobtrusive- 
ly into  the  households  of  the  deserving  poor  and 
unfortunate.    "He  that  hath  mercy  on  the  poor. 


LIVING   BY    THE    (JOSPEL 


181 


lendeth  j  the  Lord:  and  He  will  repay  him,"  says 
the  book  of  Proverbs;  and  no  charitable  priest 
needs  telling  that  the  payment  is  both  speedy  and 
above  measure,  heaped  up  and  overflowing. 

It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  point  out  to  the 
readers  of  such  a  book  as  this  that  there  is  no 
opposition  or  conflict  between  the  virtues  of  econ- 
omy and  charity;  the  one  is  not  identical  with 
parsimony,  or  stinginess,  any  more  than  the  other 
means  extravagant  waste.  The  fact  is,  as  a  worldly 
philosopher  shrewdly  remarks,  that  "it  is  only  the 
economical  man  who  can  afford  to  be  liberal,  or 
even  to  live  with  ease  and  magnanimity."  There 
is  really  no  great  difficulty  about  the  art  of  living 
easily  as  to  money,  whether  one  be  a  curate  with 
a  mere  pittance  as  a  salary,  a  pastor  of  an  excep- 
tionally poor  parish,  or  the  rector  of  an  exception- 
ally wealthy  one;  and,  paradoxical  as  at  first  it 
may  appear,  the  problem  ofttimes  proves  hard- 
est in  the  case  of  the  last-mentioned,  the  rector 
who  is  generally  looked  upon  as  one  whose  lines 
have  fallen  in  goodly  places.  The  experience  of 
all  mankind,  clerics  not  less  than  laymen,  has  dem- 
onstrated that  the  matter  is  quite  simple:  one  has 
only  to  live  within  one's  income,  or,  as  Bulwer 
puts  it,  "pitch  your  scale  of  living  one  degree  below 
your  means."  Wilkins  Micawber  (in  Dickens' 
"David  Copperfield")  graphically  summarizes  the 
financial  wisdo.a  of  the  ages  when  he  says:  "A'^- 
nual  income  twenty  pounds,  annual  expenditure 
nineteen  nine  and  six,  result  happiness.  Annual 
income  twenty  pounds,  annual  expenditure  twenty 
pounds  ought  and  six,  result  misery." 


182 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


A  wholeaome  bit  of  advice  to  priests  generally 
and  to  youn  oriests  in  particular  is  n-' '  urally  sug- 
gested h  t  last  quotation:  don't  get  into  debt, 
at  lea.«  nal  debt.  In  the  work  of  building 
up  a  nt..  ^  .»rish,  or  in  the  erection  of  new  edi- 
fices— school,  converl,  hall,  institute,  etc. — in  an 
old  parish,  debt  of  course  may  be  unavoidable;  but 
let  it  be  sanctioned  beforehand  by  the  ordinary 
of  the  diocese,  and  so  become  in  reality  his  or  the 
Church's  debt,  not  your  own.  It  has  already  been 
said  in  this  chapter  that  it  is  sinful  to  spend  ex- 
travagantly even  one's  own  money;  and  a  cleric 
should  cultivate  a  genuine  horror  of  needlessly 
spending  the  money  of  other  people,  as  is  very 
certainly  done  by  him  who  goes  into  debt  for 
superfluities.  What  Sir  Charles  Napier  once  told 
some  of  his  officers  may,  mutatis  mutandis,  be  re- 
peated appositely  enough  to  youthful  priests:  "To 
drink  unpaid-for  champagne  and  unpaid-for  beer, 
and  to  ride  unpaid  for  horses,  is  to  be  a  cheat,  and 
not  a  gentleman." 

Well-to-do  comfort  may  be  quite  compatible 
with  sacerdotal  exemplariness,  but  only  on  condi- 
tion that  it  is  within  the  range  or  compass  of  the 
sacerdotal  purse.  If  such  comfort  cannot  be  se- 
cured save  by  violating  that  excellent  rule,  "Fay  as 
you  go,"  then  the  priest  had  far  better  put  up  with 
the  inconvenience  of  decent  poverty.  The  enjoy- 
ment derived  from  the  possession  of  a  well-filled 
wardrobe,  a  goodly  collection  of  books,  the  latest 
novelties  in  ease-promoting  chairs  and  sofas,  or  the 
newest  model  in  motor-cars,  is  after  all  but  sadly 
tainted  bliss  if  the  real  ownership  of  these  various 


LIVING   BY    THE    GOSPEL 


188 


articles  resides  in  their  respective  vendors,  not  in 
the  cleric  who  has  had  then  "charged  up"  to  his 
account. 

Not  a  few  practical  philosophers  who  have  dis- 
cussed the  subject  of  getting  on  in  the  world  de- 
clare  that   making   money   is   easy   enough;   the 
trouble  is  to  keep  it  or  to  spend  it  well.    Be  this 
as  it  may,  one  thing  is  certain :  the  judicious  use 
of  money,  nc  matter  with  what  ease  or  difficulty 
acquired,  demands  method  and  system  in  the  user. 
The   unmethodical   priest,   the   man   who   rather 
prides  himself  on  not  being  a  slave  to  system  or 
rule,  is  bound  to  suffer  somewhat  for  his  irregu- 
larity in  spiritual  or  temporal  activities  of  what- 
ever nature;  but  his  substitution  of  careless  indif- 
ference  or   slovenly    attention    for   well-ordered 
system  in  money  matters  is  a  definite  inviting  of 
well-nigh  inevitable  disaster.    Now,  method  in  the 
management  of  one's  finances  is   possible   only 
when  one  possesses,  if  not  a  thorough  and  compre- 
hensive grasp,  at  least  a  good  working  knowledge, 
of  the  science  of  nccounts.    The  temporalities  of 
most  parishes  in  this  country  would  be  in  a  far 
better  condition  and  would  be  the  occasion  of  im- 
measurably less  concern  and  worry  than  at  present 
if  their  respective  pastors  were  a  little  more  pro- 
ficient in  the  prosaic  art  of  bookkeeping  by  double 
entry.    Let  it  be  said,  incidentally,  that  nowadays, 
when  so  much  stress  is  being  laid  on  the  impor- 
tance of  vocational  training,  it  is  perhaps  worth 
while  considering  whether  something  may  noi  be 
done  to  make  prospective  pastors  better  fitted.,  or 
at  least  slightly  less  incompetent,  to  look  after  the 
material  side  of  their  parish  work. 


4  I 


.il 


■fl 


184     SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 

Given  that  the  over'  helming  majority  of  our 
priests  must  necessarily  handle  money  and  take 
part  in  business  transactions  of  one  kind  or  an- 
other, it  does  not  seem  exorb'lant  to  demand  that, 
at  some  time  in  the  fifteen  or  eighteen  years  de- 
voted to  their  education,  and  somewhere  in  the 
class-rooms  or  lecture-halls  of  school,  college,  or 
seminary,  they  should  become  familiar  witii  busi- 
ness papers  or  commercial  forms;  should  learn 
how  to  use  intelligently  day-book,  cash-book,  jour- 
nal, and  ledger;  and  should  even  acquire  a  fair 
knowledge  of  commercial  law.    If  it  be  urged  that 
the  impnrting  of  such  technical  instruction  is  quite 
foreign  to  the  recognized  functions  of  classical  col- 
lege or  theological  seminary,  and  that  the  cur- 
riculum of  each  such  institution  is  already  over- 
crowded, it  may  be  permissible  to  reply  that  such 
information  is  so  quasi-essenti?\l  to  the  genuine 
efficiency  of  a  prirst  in  active  service  that  the 
seminar\'  ,?raduatc  might  do  worse  than  take  a 
supplementary  business  course,  if  only  a  "corre- 
spondence" one,  before  embarking  on  a  career  in 
which  the  lack  of  the  information  will  prove  a 
h-^ndic^p  not  to  he  offset  by  the  most  fer\ert  piety 
>,r  the  most  commendable  zeal.    To  assume  that  a 
youthful  curate  will  surely  learn  from  his  experi- 
enced pastor  all   that  he  needs   U>  know  about 
money  and  accounts  is  to  take  for  granted  what  is 
not  always  provable — that  the  pastor  is  competent 
to  impart  the  knowledge.     Nemo  dat  quod  non 
hahet,  and  this  plausible  theory  when  reduced  to 
practice  not  infreauently  proves  to  be  a  case  of  the 
blind  leading  the  blind. 


LIVING   BY    THE    GOSPEL 


185 


A  due  regard  for  method  and  the  cultivation  of 
business-like  habits  not  only  facilitate  a  priest's 
work  and  diminish  his  worry  in  administering  the 
temporalities  of  his  parish,  but  are  conducive  to  a 
rational  priestly  use  of  his  money  throughout  his 
life,  and,  a  not  unimportant  point,  ensure  the 
proper,  or  at  least  the  definite,  disposition  of  such 
fortune,  little  or  great,  as  he  leaves  behind  him 
when  life  is  over.  Even  the  ideally  apostolic  pastor 
whose  love  of  holy  poverty  leads  to  his  habitual 
giving  of  his  means  to  works  of  charity  may,  and 
should,  leave  behind  him  at  least  one  thing,  a  last 
will  and  testament.  Archbishop  Tillotson's  re- 
mark is  as  timely  in  our  day  as  it  was  i  his,  two 
hundred  years  ago:  "There  are  two  things  in 
which  men,  in  other  things  wise  enough,  do  usu- 
ally miscarry;  in  putting  off  the  making  of  their 
wills  and  their  repentance  till  it  is  too  late." 

Many  a  Catholic  prelate  since  uie  Anglican 
archbishop's  time  has  emphasized  the  same  point 
in  conferences  to  his  priests,  impressing  upon  them 
the  necessity  of  their  making  definite  testamentary 
disposition  of  their  personal  belongings  so  as  to 
avoid,  at  their  death,  contestation  by  their  relatives 
as  to  what  should  be  regarded  as  the  property  of 
Father  Blank  and  what,  that  of  the  church  or  the 
parish.  Most  readers  of  this  page  can  probably 
recall  more  than  one  instance  in  which  the  neglect 
of  a  priest  to  make  a  will  led  to  much  subsequent 
disedification,  to  bitter  disputes,  and  even  to  costly 
lawsuits.  The  present  writer  re*  .tnbers  one  par- 
ticular case  which  quite  verified  the  dictum  of  a 
rather  cynical  author:    "What  you  leave  at  your 


5-i  ; 


186 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


death  let  it  be  without  controversy,  else  the  lawyers 
will  be  your  heirs." 

The  proper  time  for  making  a  will,  in  the  case 
of  a  priest  or  any  one  else,  is  of  course  the  date  or 
the  day  when  he  becomes  possessed  of  property 
the  disposal  of  which  may  occasion  dispute  should 
he  die  intestate.  Curates  as  well  as  pastors  may 
congruously  have  their  last  will  and  testament 
drawn  up  with  all  due  legal  formality.  While 
curates,  however,  may  die,  pastors  must;  so  it  be- 
hooves the  latter  especially  not  to  postpone  the 
performance  of  so  really  important  an  act.  As 
the  average  American  priest's  life  terminates  some- 
where between  the  half-century  and  the  three-score 
mark,  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  a  parish 
priest  who  has  reached  the  age  of  fifty  without 
having  as  yet  made  his  will  is  grossly  negligent 
and  merits  a  not  too  gentle  reprimand  from  his 
ordinary.  Like  most  other  duties  that  are  easily 
performable  but  through  negligence  are  left  unful- 
filled, the  longer  the  making  of  one's  will  is  put  off 
the  greater  grows  the  reluctance  to  making  it  at  all, 
and  the  more  serious  the  risk  of  its  remaining  for- 
ever unwritten. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  that  a  priest  should 
in  due  time  make  his  will;  the  proprieties  demand 
that  the  will  should  be  a  priestly  one,  its  provi- 
sions clearly  showing  that  the  testator  was  a  man 
of  God  rather  than  a  mere  provident  citizen  of  the 
world.  The  wealth  that  has  come  to  a  priest  as 
a  patrimony  or  a  heritage  on  the  death  of  parents 
or  other  relatives  may  appropriately  enough  per- 
haps be  left  in  large  part  to  other  members  of  his 


LIVING  BY   THE   GOSPEL 


187 


family  or  to  friends;  but  such  fortune  as  he  has 
acquired  during  his  priestly  years  and  in  virtue  of 
his  priestly  office  will  most  congruously,  it  would 
seem,  be  left  for  the  most  part  to  works  of  religion 
and  charity.  That  such  disposition  of  a  pastor's 
money  and  other  possessions  impresses  the  Cath- 
olic mind  as  being  eminently  right  and  proper  was 
made  clear  only  a  few  months  ago  by  the  lauda- 
tory comments  of  our  Catholic  press  on  the  model 
priestly  will  of  a  venerable  New  England  pastor, 
as  on  that  pastor's  explanation  of  tb  «  "*le  of 
his  various  bequests.    "I  realize,"  fc^  that  I 

came  to  this  parish  a  poor  man;  tha  irjm  the 
parish  has  come  whatever  of  worldly  goods  I  pos- 
sess; and  that  accordingly  the  parish  or  its  re- 
ligious works  should  receive  the  great  bulk  of 
whatever  I  have  to  leav*" 

That  not  all  clerics'  wills  are  dictated  by  the 
like  commendable  motives  may  be  inferred  from 
the  relative  infrequency  with  which  one  finds  sim- 
ilar cases  reported  in  our  Catholic  papers.  From 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  to  three  hundred 
American  priests  die  every  year;  at  least  several 
scores  of  them  are  presumably  fairly  well-off 
financially;  but  it  is  doubtful  that  a  scant  dozen  of 
their  last  testaments  deserve  any  such  praise  as  the 
one  instanced  in  the  foregoing  paragraph.  The 
ordinary  of  a  large  American  diocese,  the  majority 
of  whose  priests  are  certainly  not  poor  men,  not 
long  ago  spoke  very  plainly  to  his  clergy  on  this 
subject,  characterizing  as  an  abuse  a  priest's  be- 
queathing everything  to  relatives  and  nothing  lo 
religious  or  charitable  institutions,  and  intimating 


188 


SACKKDOTAL   SAFE(JUAKDS 


that  he  might  eventually  feel  called  upon  to  de- 
mand a  sight  of  a  deceased  priest's  will  before 
accepting  an  invitation  to  his  funeral. 

On   the  whole,  perhaps,   he  lives  best  by   the 
(Jospcl  who  has  least  to  bequeath  to  any  one  when 
the  business  of  life  is  over.    Deeds  of  gifts  during 
one's  lifetime  arc  usually  better  worth  while,  and 
are  obviously  less  selfish,  than  are  testamentary 
bequests— of  goods  one  can  no  longer  keep.    The 
pockets  of  the  poor  and  the  mite-boxes  for  the 
missions  are  better  receptacles  for  a  priest's  su- 
perfluous cash  than  are  the  safety-vaults  of  the 
bank.  The  man  who  at  the  very  outset  of  his  eccle- 
siastical life  I  xclaimed,  Dominus  pars  h^'-.ditatis 
meae,  and  whose  detachment  from  earthly  goods 
was  mnde  a  condition  precedent  to  his  becoming 
a  veritable  priest— "Every  one  of  you  that  does 
not  renounce  all  that  he  possesseth,  can  not  be  my 
disciple"— such  a  man  may  indeed  become  rich; 
but  it  behooves  him  to  take  exceptional  care  that 
he  be  not  excluded  from  the  scriptural  benedic- 
tion:   "Blessed  is  the  rich  man  that  is  found  with- 
out blemish,  and  that  hath  not  gone  after  gold,  nor 
put  his  trust  in  money  nor  in  treasure." 


1 


THE  RUBRICS   OF   ENGLISH 


One  of  the  fimt  and  most  indiapensablo  Rtudics  of  the  priest 
is  the  mastery  of  his  mother  tongue.  He  shoulii  aoquire  »o  thor- 
ough a  knowledge  of  hia  own  language  thr.t  he  may  lie  able  to 
speak  and  write  it  to  perfection. — Father  Mach,  S.  J. 

.  .  .  The  Ep'^lish  is  simple,  clear,  and  never  jars  or  halts; 
and  oh,  how  ba<liy  we  need  our  apologetics  in  readable  and 
attractive  English!  Our  opponents — weak  as  their  case  is— gather 
half  their  strength  from  their  mastery  of  style  and  elegance  of 
diction. — "Papyrus,"  in  Catholic  Times. 

There  are  many  who  understand  Greek  and  Latin,  and  yet  are 
ignorant  of  their  mother-tongue.  The  proprieties  and  delicacies 
of  English  are  known  to  few;  it  is  impossible  evon  for  a  good  wit 
to  under.>tand  and  practice  them,  without  the  help  of  a  liberal 
education,  long  reading,  and  digesting  of  those  few  good  authors 
we  have  amongst  us,  the  knowledge  of  men  and  manners,  the  free- 
dom of  habitudes  and  conversation  with  the  best  company  of  both 
sexes;  and,  in  short,  without  wearing  oflf  the  rust  which  he  con- 
tracted while  he  was  laying  in  a  stock  of  learning. — Dr;iden. 


m 


i  f. 


AT  a  gathering  of  priests  in  0.1  American  rec- 
tory a  year  or  two  8^0,  the  subject  of  con- 
gruous clerical  hobbies  was  introduced,  and  the 
study  of  some  foreign  language — French,  or  Ger- 
man, or  Spanish — was  advocated  as  an  excellent 
occupation  for  an  hour  or  two  of  the  ordinary 
priest's  daily  leisure.  An  interesting  discussion 
about  the  respective  importance  and  merits  of 
these  alien  tongues  was  interrupted  by  an  inquiry 
addressed  by  the  youngest  to  the  oldest  priest  of 
the  group:  "Well,  Father  Tom,  what  language 
would  you  advise  me  to  take  up  as  mif  hobby?" — 
"English,  my  dear  boy,"  was  the  unhesitating  reply. 
"English,  by  all  means."  As  the  youthful  cleric 
who  had  asked  the  question  considered  himself 

189 


1' 
ell: 


190 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


1 


fairly  proficient  in  the  use  of  his  mother-tongue, 
he  was  a  little  taken  aback  by  this  intimation  that 
the  time  and  attention  which  he  had  devoted  to 
the  study  of  grammar  and  composition  in  school 
and  college  needed  to  be  supplemented  by  addi- 
tional assiduous  effort  to  master  the  laws  govern- 
ing English  speech;  but,  the  more  he  reflected  upon 
the  matter,  the  stronger  became  his  conviction  that 
Father  Tom's  reply  was  not  so  much  an  offhand 
joke  as  a  bit  of  really  judicious  advice. 

That  the  same  advice  may  appropriately  be 
given  to  mnny  another  young  priest  in  this  country 
is  an  assertion  the  truth  of  which  is  not  likely  to 
be  called  in  question  by  the  best  speakers  and 
writers  in  the  ranks  of  our  clergy,  or  by  any  one 
else  whose  linguistic  or  philologic  learning  quali- 
fies him  to  speak  with  authority  on  the  subject. 
The  statement  that  "Jhe  proprieties  and  delicacies 
of  English  are  known  to  few,"  may  be  more  dis- 
putable nowadays  than  it  was  in  Dryden's  time; 
but  that  these  niceties  of  our  language  are  still 
unknown,  or  at  least  unpracticed,  by  the  generality 
of  authors  and  orators  is  clear  from  the  pitifully 
small  number  of  writers  and  speakers  who  have 
achieved  such  unquestioned  distinction  in  the 
mastery  of  English  as  to  warrant  their  being  called 
models  of  style. 

To  attempt  any  new  definition  of  literary  style 
would  be  futile.  The  rhetorical  treatises,  quota- 
tion-books, dictionaries  of  thought,  etc.,  are  full  of 
varied  expressions  defining  what  at  best  must  ever 
remain  an  elusive,  largely  undefinable,  entity. 
"Proper   words    in   proper  places,"   says   Swi 


I'M 
H  ! 


THE   RUBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


191 


"make  the  true  definition  of  a  style."  **If  thought 
is  the  gold,"  remarks  Dr.  Brown,  "style  is  the 
stamp  which  makes  it  current,  and  says  under 
what  king  it  was  issued."  Perhaps  '  jrd  Chester- 
field's definition  is  as  good  as  most  others.  "Style," 
he  says,  "is  the  dress  uf  thouglits;  let  them  be  ever 
so  just,  if  your  style  is  homely,  coarse,  and  vulgar, 
they  will  appear  to  as  much  disadvantage,  and  be 
as  ill  received,  as  your  person,  though  ever  so  well 
proportioned,  would  be  if  dressed  in  rags,  dirt,  and 
tatters."  Thought  is  the  substance  of  a  book  or  a 
discourse,  style  is  the  form;  thought  is  the  matter, 
style  is  the  manner;  thought  is  the  literary  tailor's 
material,  style  is  the  peculiar  cut  he  gives  it; 
thought  is  the  literary  chefs  food  in  the  raw,  style 
is  the  cocking  to  which  he  subjects  it;  thought,  in 
fine,  is  what  one  has  to  say,  and  style  is  how  one 
says  it. 

It  is  clear  from  the  foregoin.<{  that  style,  far 
from  being  a  negligible  quantity,  is  a  very  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  production  of  any  composition, 
oral  or  written,  that  has  genuine  merit.  Just  as  a 
good  tailor  can  make  a  better-looking  suit  of 
clothes  out  of  homespun  than  can  an  inferior 
sartor  out  of  broadcloth;  just  as  a  good  cook  can 
prepare  a  more  savory  meal  from  scraps  and  rem- 
nants than  can  a  poor  one  from  a  prime  roast  of 
beef  —  so  can  a  stylist  present  commonplace 
thoughts  with  an  attractiveness  and  effectiveness 
which  a  profounder  and  more  original  author,  de- 
ficient in  style,  can  never  attain.  The  successful 
teacher  must  not  only  know  his  subject  but  have 
the  secret  of  imparting  his  knowledge;  and  the 


I  '■ 


>'  ii 


f  ti 


I';!        i 

ill;    '  ' 

V-i. 

■i   U       I 

w 


192 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


effective  writer  or  speaker  must  not  only  have 
something  worth  while  saying,  but  must  know  how 
to  say  it  in  a  worth  while  way. 

It  does  not  follow  that  the  way  in  question,  the 
manner  of  one's  expression,  should  be  out  of  the 
common,  or  conspicuous;  on  the  contrary,  the  bet- 
ter the  stvle,  the  less  attention  it  draws  to  itself. 
The  art  that  conceals  art  is  indeed  nowhere  more 
necessary  than  in  literary  composition.    All  must 
appear  easy,  unlabored,  natural.    Yet,  as  Colton 
judiciously  remarks:    "Nothing  is  so  difficult  as 
the  apparent  ease  of  a  clear  and  flowing  style. 
Those  graces  which,  from  their  presumed  facility, 
encourage  all  to  attempt  to  imitate  them,  are  usu- 
ally the  most  inimitable."    That  was  a  rare  com- 
pliment paid  to  Goldsmith  by  the  man  in  the  street, 
who,  after  reading  "The  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  de- 
clared:    "Well,  I  don't  see  anything  remarkable 
about  the  style  of  the  book.    'Tis  quite  simple;  in 
fact,  'tis  just  the  wav  I'd  write,  myself,  if  I  were 
given  to  that  sort  of  thing."     A  century  before 
"The  Vicar"  was  published,  the  French  writer, 
Pascal,  told  the  secret  of  the  pleasure  we  experi- 
ence in  reading  such  authors  as  Goldsmith:  "When 
we  meet  with  a  natural  style  we  are  surprised  and 
delighted,  for  we  expected  to  find  an  author,  and 
have  found  a  man." 

It  is  with  the  hope  of  slightly  helping  an  occa- 
sional reader  of  this  book  to  acquire  something  of 
this  naturalness  of  style,  to  disclose  in  both  his 
sermons  and  his  published  compositions  less  of  the 
author  and  more  of  the  man,  that  this  chapter  is 
written     It  may  be  well,  before  going  further,  to 


THE    I  UBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


193 


forestall  some  of  the  more  or  less  stereotyped  criti- 
cisms wliicli  tiie  chapter  will  probably,  and  not 
altogetlicr  unnaturally,  p  ovoke.    In  the  first  place, 
I  disclaim  unequivocally  the  arrogant  assumption 
that  I  am  either  a  critical  authority  on  the  English 
language,  or  an  adept  in  its  use.     In  the  second 
place,  I  readily  admit  that  this  book  as  a  whole, 
and  even  this  particular  chapter,  will  afford  ample 
justification  for  the  advice,  Medice,  cura  teipsum— 
which  same  advice,  by  the  way,  might  quite  as 
justly  be  proffered  to  many  an  occupant  of  the 
pulpit:  not  all  clerical  sticklers  for  consistency  in 
others  invariably  set  a  personal  example  of  prac- 
ticing what  they  preach. 

It  is  perhaps  fortunate  for  many  of  us  that  this 
saying,  "Physician,  heal  thyself,"  however  effective 
as  a  smart  retort,  has  after  all  but  little  argumenta- 
tive force  or  weight.    "A  more  foolish  requisition," 
says  Richard  Grant  White,  "was  never  uttered. 
That  a  physician  cannot  heal  himself  is  no  ground 
for  belief  that  his  advice  may  not  profit  others; 
nor  is  even  the  fact  that  he  is  ailing  evidence  that 
he  is  ignorant  of  his  condition  or  unable  to  better 
it."    The  fact  is  that  the  average  man  who  gives 
advice  about  health,  or  morals,  or  writing,  can 
probably  say  with  more  of  truth  than  did  St.  Paul: 
"The  good  which  I  will,  I  do  not;  but  the  evil  which 
I  will  not,  that  1  do."    If  I  am  asked  why  I  expose 
myself  to  Diderot's  jest  on  Bcccaria,  "He  has  writ- 
ten on  style  a  work  in  which  there  is  no  style," 
the  answer  is  twofold :    I  have  been  requested  by 
several  clerical  correspondents  to  write  some  such 
chapter  as  this  one;  and  an  experience  of  twenty- 


is 


194 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


five  years  in  teaching  grammar  and  rhetoric  has 
made  me  passably  familiar  with  the  rubrics  of  our 
language  and  with  a  considerable  number  of  con- 
crete distinctions  between  good  English  and  bad. 
For  the  encouragement  of  such  younger  clerics 
as  have  reason  to  believe  that  their  knowledge  of 
English  is  superficial  rather  than  thorough  or  pro- 
found, let  it  be  said  at  once  that  English  grammar 
is  a  much  more  interesting  study  for  men  of  thirty 
or  forty  than  for  boys  of  thirteen  or  fourteen.  "Of 
all  the  tasks  of  our  school-days,"  says  a  philologist 
of  note,  "perhaps  none  was  more  repugnant  to  any 
of  us  than  the  study  of  grammar";  and  his  state- 
ment is  probably  true  of  all  the  boys,  old  and 
young,  who  have  wrestled  with  the  rules  of  "gram- 
mar and  parsing,"  from  the  days  of  Lindley  Mur- 
ray to  those  of  Thomus  W.  Harvey.  Who  that 
knows  his  Dickens  has  not  chuckled  with  enjoy- 
ment or  roared  with  laughter  over  this  delicious 
bit  of  burlesque  parsing,  in  "Nicholas  Nickleby"? — 
"Ah,  it's  me,"  said  Mr.  Squeers,  "and  me's  the  first 
person  singular,  nominative  case,  agreeing  with 
the  verb  it's,  and  governed  by  Squeers  understood; 
as  a  acorn,  a  hour;  but  when  Uie  h  is  sounded,  the  a 
only  is  to  be  used,  as  a  'and,  a  'art,  a  'ighway." 
Much  of  our  enjoyment  of  the  burlesque  probably 
arises  from  the  resemblance  which  the  Yorkshire 
schoolmaster's  ridiculous  jumble  bears  to  almost 
equally  ludicrous  instances  of  parsing,  remem- 
bered from  the  days  when  we  wore  red-topped, 
coppered-toed  boots,  and  rode  our  sleds  "belly- 
gutter"  down  the  hill  behind  the  school-house. 
Grammar,  however,  is  neither  so  dry  nor  so  use- 


THE   RUBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


195 


less  a  study  as  we  were  wont  in  those  day  to  call 
it.  "The  structure  of  language,"  sass  Dr.  Blair, 
"is  extremely  artificial;  and  there  are  few  sciences 
in  which  a  deeper  or  more  refined  logic  is  em- 
ployed than  in  grammar.  It  is  apt  to  be  slighted 
by  superficial  thinkers,  as  belonging  to  those  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge  which  were  inculcated  upon 
us  in  our  earliest  youth.  But  what  was  then  incul- 
cated before  we  could  comprehend  its  principles 
would  abundantly  repay  our  study   in   maturer 

years." 

If  it  be  objected  to  the  foregoing  quotation  that 
it  is  taken   from   an   eighteenth   century   writer 
whose  views  may  now  be  considered  obsolete,  the 
following  passage,  from  an  American  philologist 
who  died  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  will 
perhaps  impress  the  readei    ,s  being  more  authori- 
tative:   "That  the  leading  object  of  the  study  of 
English  grammar  is  to  teach  the  correct  use  of 
English  is,  in  my  view,  an  error,  and  one  which  is 
gradually  becoming  removed,  giving  way  to  the 
sounder  opinion  that  grammar  is  the  reflective 
study  of  language,  for  a  variety  of  purposes,  of 
which  correctness  in  writing  is  only  one,  and  a 
secondary  or  subordinate  one— by  no  means  unim- 
portant, but  best  attained  when  sought  indirectly. 
It  is  constant  use   and  practice,  under 
never-failing  watch   and  correction,   that  makes 
good  writers  and  speakers;  the  application  of  di- 
rect  authority    is    the    most    efficient    corrective. 
Grammar  has  its  part  lo  contribute,  but  rather  in 
the  higher  than  the  lower  stages  of  the  work." ' 

1  BB$entiala  of  ISngHsh  Graximar,  by  Wiiliam  DwSght  Whltn-'y 


i 


196 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Whether  or  not  one  agrees  with  this  philologist  as 
to  the  leading  object  of  grammatical  study,  one 
cannot  but  admit  that  the  views  just  quoted  are  in 
harmony  with  those  of  Dr.  Blair  on  the  utility  and 
interest  of  such  study  for  men  of  mature  years. 
It  is  true,  of  course,  that  these  views  are  apparently 
dissented  from  by  several  authors  whose  prestige 
entitles  their  opinion  to  some  weight.  We  find 
Richard  Grant  White,  for  instance,  speaking  of 
"that  absurd  and  utterly  useless  'branch'  of  educa- 
tion, English  grammar";  but  as  this  qualification 
of  the  subject  is  found  in  a  book  entitled  "Every- 
Day  English,"  a  companion  volume  to  the  same 
Mr.  White's  "Words  and  Their  Uses,"  it  is  clear 
that  he,  too,  considers  the  language  itself  (apart 
from  cut-and-dried  grammatical  formulas)  emi- 
nently worth  one's  attention  and  study. 

Mere  nomenclature  does  not  affect  the  main 
purpose  of  the  man  who  wishes  to  learn  how  to 
speak  and  write  good  English  and  to  avoid  speak- 
ing and  writing  bad  English.  Whether  the  direc- 
tions which  he  is  told  to  follow  are  called  rules 
of  grammar,  prectpts  of  rhetoric,  the  demands  of 
good  usage,  or  what  not,  really  matters  little,  pro- 
vided these  directions  be  faithfully  carried  out.  It 
is  not  always  easy  indeed,  nor  is  it  at  all  necessary, 
distinctly  to  limit  the  respective  domains  of  gram- 
mar and  rhetoric  and  build  a  line-fence  between 
them;  and  it  is  practically  impossible  to  enclose 
within  hard  and  fast  boundaries  the  territory 
claimed  by  good  usage.  Concerning  such  a  sen- 
tence as,  "Every  man  can  at  least  speak  on  one 
subj^t  with  authority,  and  that  is  his  normal 


THE   RUBRICS   OF   ENGLISH 


197 


health,"  the  question  that  matters  is  not  so  much 
whether  the  choice  and  collocation  of  the  words 
violate  rules  of  syntax  or  principles  of  rheioric, 
as  whether  the  sentence  is  a  good  one;  and  the 
reconstruction  of  the  sentence  in  this  form,  "Every 
man  can  speak  with  authority  on  at  least  one  sub- 
ject, his  normal  health,"  is  the  main  thing,  far 
more  important  than  the  knowledge  of  any  tech- 
nical or  scientific  reason  why  such  reconstruction 
is  required.    Excellent  English,  it  need  hardly  be 
said,  is  spoken  and  written  by  many  persons  who 
entireb;  ignore  not  merely  the  niceties,  subtleties, 
and  technicalities  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  but 
even  the  elementary  principles  of  these  linguistic 
arts.    The  natural  born  orator  and  the  unlettered 
conversaUonalist  who  "talks  like  a  book"  are  char- 
acters to  be  met  with  in  not  a  few  American  com- 
munities; but  this  fact  proves  merely  that  there 
are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  that  training  and 
drilling  in  the  use  of  words  and  in  the  combination 
of  words  into  sentences  must  precede  the  acquisi- 
tion of  any  genuine  proficiency  in  either  speaking 
or  writing  good  English. 

One  phrase  used  in  the  foregoing  paragraph, 
"the  choice  and  collocation  of  words,"  is  worth  re- 
peating, both  because  in  a  large  sense  it  defines 
style  itself  as  viewed  by  Swift— "proper  words  in 
proper  places"— and  because  in  a  narrower  sense 
it  declares  the  specific  scope  of  the  rest  of  this 
chapter— the  application  of  some  of  the  recognized 
rubrics,  or  rules,  of  oui  language  to  the  selection 
of  individual  words  and  to  the  construction  of  con- 
crete sentences.    Obviously,  our  discussion  o'  both 


'S  . 


m 


198 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


words  and  sentences  must  be  partial  and  sugges- 
tive— rather  than  comprehensive  and  thorough; 
but,  even  so,  it  may  stimulate  interest  in  a  very 
practical  subject  and  possibly  move  a  few  readers 
to  a  reperusal  of  the  books  in  which  the  treatment 
of  that  subject  is  detailed  and  complete. 

One  of  the  oldest  of  similes  is  that  which  likens 
language  to  an  army.  From  time  immemorial 
writers  have  used  such  expressions  as  "the  battle 
of  the  books,"  "serried  ranks  of  words,"  "battalions 
of  arguments,"  "regiments  of  pamphlets,"  and  sim- 
ilar metaphorical  phrases.  It  may  be  worth  while 
to  point  out  thai  each  term  of  the  comparison,  the 
army  and  language,  has  its  unit,  or  standard  quan- 
tity, by  the  repetition  of  which  any  quantity  of  thr 
same  kind  is  measured.  An  administrative  unit  in 
the  army  is  the  smallest  organized  subdivision 
having  a  complete  administration  of  its  own;  in 
the  United  States  infantry  it  is  the  regiment.  The 
corresponding  unit  of  language  is  the  sentence; 
and,  just  as  the  efficiency  of  the  army  as  a  whole 
defends  on  the  ordered  strength  and  skill  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  various  regiments  that  compose  it, 
so  the  effectiveness  of  language  in  composition — 
a  sermon  or  a  book,  an  editorial  article  or  a  cate- 
chetical instruction-  largely  dependent  upon  the 
perfection  with  whit,  its  sentences  are  con- 
structed. A  regiment  of  infantry  is  subdivided  into 
battalions,  companies,  platoons,  sections,  and 
squads;  the  typical  sentence  is  made  up  of  coordi- 
nate and  sub-ordinate  clauses,  subjects  and  predi- 
cates, adjuncts  and  phrases:  and.  finally,  as  the 
squad  consists  of  privates,  so  the  least  of  these 
sentence-divisions  is  made  up  of  words. 


THE    RUBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


199 


A  priest's  vocabulary,  the  sum  or  stock  of  words 
which  he  has  at  his  command,  is  generally  large 
enough  for  the  adequate  expression  of  his  thoughts, 
either  in  the  pulpit  or  at  his  writing-desk.    The 
number  and  variety  of  his  studies  at  school,  at 
college,   and  at  seminarj',   and   the  multifarious 
reading  that  usually  occupies  some  portion  of  his 
normal  day  have  naturally  impressed   upon  his 
memory  such  a  suflficiency  of  verbal  signs  as  enable 
him  to  express  clearly  any  and  all  ideas  of  which 
he  has   a   distinct  conception.     Of  the  younger 
American  priest,  indeed,  it  is  probably  true  to  say 
that  his  vocabulary  is  more  copious  than  select. 
He  is  fond  of  introducing  slang  into  his  conversa- 
tion, and  does  not  scruple  to  use  colloquialisms  m 
his  sermons— neither  of  which  practices  is  to  be 
commended  as  consonant  with  sacerdotal  dignity. 
An  experienced  curate  may  congruously  enough 
advise  a  younger  fellow-curate  to  desist  from  sar- 
casticallv  criticising  their  common  rector's  capri- 
ciousness  or  parsimony,  lest  the  rector's  patience 
should  give  way  and  the  critic  come  to  grief;  but 
the  advice  gains  nothing  in  cogency  from  being 
phrased  in  such  jargon  as:    "Say,  kul,  I-t  me  put 
you  wise.    You  want  to  go  slow  on  that  knockmg 
stuff,  or  cut  it  out  altogether.    The  old  man  is  on 
to  you  and  is  about  fed  up  with  the  lemons  you 
keep  handing  him.    Better  play  the  soft  pedal,  son, 
or  you'll  find  yourself  up  against  it,  for  when  the 
Daddy  does  cut  loose,  he's  some  verbal  scrapper, 
believe  me."    Slang  is  most  frequently  an  oflfense 
against  propriety,  rather  than  purity,  of  diction. 
The  latter  quality  is  thus  defined:  "An  author's  die- 


■   !| 

i 

Ml 


200 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


tion  is  pure  when  he  uses  such  words  only  as  belong 
to  the  idiom  of  the  language  in  opposition  to  words 
that  are  foreign,  obsolete,  newly  coined,  or  with- 
out proper  authority."  Now,  all  the  words  in  the 
example  of  slang  given  above  are,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  "scrapper,"  good  English  terms.  Taken 
separately  they  are  quite  reputable,  yet,  as  used  in 
the  example,  they  violate  propriety  of  diction  be- 
cause they  are  misapplied,  or,  as  Campbell  ex- 
presses the  idea,  "they  are  employed  as  signs  of 
things  to  which  use  hath  not  affixed  then." 

Purity  of  diction,  on  the  other  hand,  is  violated 
by  the  use  of  such  words  or  phrases  as :  auto,  photo, 
enthuse,  flustratcd,  complected,  clutterly,  slantin- 
dicular,  solemncholly,  gumption,  whopper,  to  sui- 
cide, to  size  up,  to  back  out  of,  tour  de  force,  a  la 
mode,  adios,  sub  rosa,  entre  nous,  nicht  wahr,  auf 
wiedersehen,  etc.,  e.c.  Should  any  reader  be  in- 
clined to  question  the  propriety  of  calling  the  at- 
tention of  clerics  to  such  expressions  as  the  fore- 
going, we  beg  to  inform  him  that  perhaps  the  most 
ludicrous  word  in  the  list,  "solemncholly,"  ap- 
peared a  few  years  ago  in  a  serious  poem,  or 
"pome,"  published  h  a  Catholic  journal— and  the 
poet  was  a  priest. 

Impropriety  of  diction  arises  most  frequently 
from  the  use  of  words  in  senses  different  from 
their  real  meanings.  The  pastor  who  declared  to 
his  congregation:  "I  will  not  demean  myself  by 
harping  upon  money,"  was  guilty  of  faulty  diction : 
he  meant  that  he  would  not  lower,  degrade,  or 
bemean  himself.  "Demean"  is  the  equivalent  of 
"behave."    A  much  grosser  error  was  that  of  the 


THE   RUBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


201 


cleric  who  bewailed  his  lot  in  being  "illegible"  for 
an    irremovable    rectorship.      He    did    not    state 
whether  or  not  his  handwriting  was  "eligible."    It 
must  have  been  inadvertence  rather  than  igno- 
rance that  was  accountable  for  a  retreat-master's 
advising  a  body  of  religious :  "Always  keep  forag- 
ing ahead  in  the  way  of  perfection."    Conversely, 
it  was  probably  pretentious  ignorance,  and  not 
mere  inadvertence,  that  led  a  country  editor  to 
write :    "Celebrating  Mass,  preaching,  administer- 
ing the  sacraments,  reciting  the  office,  attending 
sick-calls— these  are  the  ordinary  avocations  of  the 
parish  priest."    He  meant  just  the  opposite  of  what 
he  said.    The  duties  or  activities  mentioned  consti- 
tute the  priest's  vocation;  his  avocations  are  mat- 
ters which  call  him  away  from  these  duties.   Some- 
thing of  the  same  fondness  for  "elegant"  words 
dominated  that  father  whose  son,  being  off  for  his 
summer  holidays,  was  said  to  be  "enjoying  his 

vocation.'* 

Simpler  and  more  common  examples  of  this 
misuse  of  words  occur  in  the  substitution  of  "lay" 
for  "lie,"  "stop"  for  "stay,"  "last"  fcr  "latest," 
"less"  for  "fewer,"  "kind  of"  for  "rather'  or  "some- 
what," "visit  with"  for  "visit,"  "tell  him  good-bye''^ 
for  "bid  him  good-bye"  or  "say  good-bye  to  him," 
and,  as  the  old-time  locution  has  it,  "many  others 
too  numerous  to  mention."  "You'd  better  lay  down 
for  a  while  and  rest,"  said  Father  Grady  to  his 
curate.— "Thank  you.  Father,"  was  the  reply,  "but 
when  I  lay  down  yesterday  afternoon  I  couldn't 
sleep,  so  I  think  I  shall  not  lie  down  today."    The 
pastor's  "lay"  was  wrong;  the  curate's,  right.    "On 


I  -.11 


202 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


my  way  to  New  York  I  stopped  two  days  in  Boston 
visiting  with  my  uncle,"  is  bad  English.  What  the 
sper'"^  meant  was:  "On  my  way  to  New  York 
Is.  id  at  Boston,  and  stayed  there  two  days 
visiting  my  uncle."  "Did  you  hear  my  last  ser- 
mon?" inquired  a  young  priest  of  a  friend.  "I 
hope  not,"  was  the  accurate  reply,  "but  I  heard 
your  latest  one."  The  distinction  between  "less" 
(referring  to  quantity)  and  "fewer"  (having  to  do 
with  number)  was  well  observed  by  the  physician 
who  said  to  his  portly  patient:  'Take  fewer 
meals  and  eat  less  at  each,  and  in  six  months  you 
will  weigh  less  and  have  fewer  complaints." 

In  the  latest  book  of  one  of  our  priest-noveiists 
occurs  this  sentence:   "Still,  it  cannot  be  an  easy 
life  to  be  one  of  seven  or  eight  Protestant  ministers 
in  such  a  small  town."    As  the  writer  evidently 
means  to  emphasize  the  smallness  of  the  town,  and 
not  its  difference  in  this  or  that  respect  from  other 
small  towns,  the  concluding  clause  should  be  "so 
small   a   town."     "Anyhow,"  said    an   indignant 
altar-boy  the  other  day  to  a  curate  whose  Mass  he 
had  served  that  morning,  "you're  not  as  nice  as 
Father  Callahan.    He  don't  jump  on  a  fellow  for 
every  lit'  e  break  he  makes."    If  the  lad  had  a 
nicer,  more   precise    knowledge   of   his   mother- 
tongue,  he  would  have  said:    "At  any  rate,  you're 
not  so  kind  as  Father  Callahan.    He  doesn't  scold 
a  boy  for  every  little  mistake  he  makes."    After 
a  negative,  or  a  question  implying  a  negative  an- 
swer, the  proper  correlatives  are  so     .     .     .     as, 
not  as     .     .     .     as;  and  "don't"  is  (colloquially) 
correct  only  when  "do  not"  can  be  grammatically 
used  in  its  place. 


THE    RUBRICS    OF    ENGLISH 


203 


The  misuse  of  even  the  smallest  words,  the  least 
important  parts  of  speech,  may  occasion  notable 
mistakes  in  meaning.     Placing,  or  omitting,  the 
article  "a"  before  "few,"  for  instance,  changes  the 
sense  of  that  word  in  an  appreciable  degree.    If 
a  pastor  says  to  his  people,  "Few  of  you  go  to  daily 
Communion,"  he  is  reproaching  them,  since  he  im- 
plies that  scarcely  any  of  them  approach  the  Holy 
Table.    If  he  says,  "A  few  of  you  go  to  Holy  Com- 
munion," he  is  complimenting  those   (a  number 
worth  mentioning)  who  do  approach  it.     Among 
the  testimonials  published  in  an  advertising  cir- 
cular issued  by  an  American  vendor  of  altar  wines, 
I  find  this  rather  strange  statement:    "I  shall  al- 
ways use  your  wine  in  the  hereafter."    The  two 
superfluous  little  words  "in  the"  give  the  sentence 
a  meaning  quite  other  than  its  author  intended. 
The  mistake  probably  arose  from  his  having  in 
mind  two  synonyms,  "future"  and  "hereafter,"  and 
his  writing  the  latter  while  thinking  of  the  former. 
The  mention  of  synonyms  suggests  a  reference 
to  another  quality  of  diction,  that  which  the  rhet- 
oricians  call   precision.     A   word   may   be   pure 
English,  and  may  conform  in  a  general  way  to  the 
demands  of  propriety,  without  being  precise,  that 
is,  without  conveying  the  exact  shade  of  meaning 
which  best  expresses  the  idea  of  the  speaker  or 
writer.    "Do  what  I  will,  I  cannot  remembc  ^  where 
I  left  my  breviary,"  is  an  instance  of  lack  of  pre- 
cision.   What  we  remember  recurs  to  us  without 
any  effort;  what  is  recalled  to  mind  only  after 
some  effort  has  been  made  to  recall  it  is  recol- 
lected.  We  do  not  remember,  we  cannot  recollect. 


i  iJ 


m 


204 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Limitations  of  space  preclude  even  a  summarized 
discussion,  in  this  chapter,  of  precision  in  the  use 
of  words;  but  the  reader  may  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  study  of  English  synonyms  is  not  less  at- 
tractive than  it  is  important.  Of  all  the  text-books 
which  it  has  been  the  present  writer's  lot  to  ex- 
pound in  the  class-room  none  was  so  generally 
popular  among  the  students,  or  so  thoroughly 
mastered  for  examination  days,  as  "Graham's 
Synonyms."  Even  those  boys  to  whom  English 
was  a  foreign  language  invariably  received  a 
higher  "note"  for  the  subject.  Synonyms,  than  for 
any  other  taught  in  the  class. 

To  come  at  length  to  the  administrative  unit  of 
language  in  composition,  the  sentence:  obviously, 
the  primal,  imperative  requisite  of  such  a  unit  is 
that  it  be  intelligible,  understandable;  or,  to  use 
tlie  phraseology  of  the  rhetoricians,  every  sentence 
should  at  least  be  clear,  even  if  it  falls  short  of 
lucidity.     The  normal  man  speaks  or  writes  in 
order  to  make  himself  understood  by  others.  Vol- 
taire's sarcasm,  "Men  employ  speech  only  to  con- 
ceal their  thoughts,"  carries  a  suggestion  of  truth 
only  when  it  is  applied  to  diplomi  lists  or  to  hu- 
morists; and  the  speech  of  even  these  classes  must, 
to  be  effective,  clearly  express  something,  if  it  be 
only  deception  or  nonsense.    The  humorous  letter 
of  recommendation  given  by  a  clerical  friend  of 
ours  to  a  pair  of  import-mate  youths  of  whom  he 
knew  next  to  nothing  is  a  case  in  point:    "These 
two  young  men  will,  in  my  estimation,  be  able  to 
come  up  to  the  ordinary  requirements  of  the  work 
they  may  be  competent  to  do."  While  quite  as  non- 


THE   RUBRICS   OF   ENGLISH 


committal  as  Lincoln's  criticism,  "For  those  who 
like  this  sort  of  book  I  think  it  is  about  the  sort 
of  book  they'll  like,"  the  recommendatory  sentence 
can  scarcely  be  condt-mned  as  obscure  or  ambig- 
uous. In  this  respect  it  differs  from  verj'  many 
sentences  uttered  by  clerical  speakers  and  printed 
in  books  written  by  clerical  authors.  If  there  is 
one  rule  the  observance  of  which  is  of  paramount 
importance  in  the  expression  of  thought,  and 
which  is  nevertheless  violated  more  frequently 
perhaps  than  are  most  other  rhetorical  precepts, 
it  is  Quintilian's  rule  for  clearness :  Construct  the 
sentence  in  such  a  way  that  its  meaning  not  only 
may  be  understood,  but  cannot  possibly  be  mis- 
understood. 

This  rule  needs  no  justification.  Common  sense 
approves  its  reasonableness,  and  daily  experience 
demonstrates  its  utility.  It  is  evident  that  a  sen- 
tence may,  without  losing  all  its  effectiveness,  be 
long  or  short,  loose  or  periodic,  balanced  or  un- 
even, smooth-flowing  or  choppy,  natural  or 
pedantic,  nervous  or  feeble;  but,  if  it  lacks  per- 
spicuity or  clearness,  it  fails  to  accomplish  the 
essential  purpose  for  which  it  has  been  constructed. 
It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  there  can  be  no  clear 
writing  without  clear  thinking,  but  the  converse 
statement  is  perhaps  disputable.  There  are  per- 
sons who  believe  it  quite  possible  (Roileau's  opin- 
ion to  the  contrary  notwithstanding)*  to  think 
clearly  and  yet  write  obscurely.  We  can  hardly, 
they  contend,  brand  as  falsehood  the  assertion 


,pti 


i 


iC»  que  Ton  conceit  blon  s'enonce  clalreraeat 
Et  ICT  mrtB  iJwir  Te  dire  arrfvtwt  alBemfetit. 


kS^^ 


I 


f 


I  fi 


206 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


which  we  have  frequently  heard  others  make,  if 
indeed  we   have   not  occasionally   made  it  our- 
selves:   "I  know  well  enough  what  I  mean,  but  I 
can't  find  the  words  that  will  exactly  express  it." 
Divergence  of  opinions  as  to  this  point  does  not, 
however,  really  affect  the  practical  consideration 
that,  in  order  to  write  clearly,  one  must  have  ac- 
quired, either  directly  by  definite  study,  or  indi- 
rectly by  wide  reading  of  the  best  authors  and 
association  with  correct  speakers,  a  fairly  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  rubrics  of  the  language, 
familiar  acquaintance  with   llie   whole  body  of 
those  laws — of  grammar,  of  rhetoric,  and  of  cur- 
rent usage — that  determine  what  is,  and  what  is 
not,  good  English.     Now,  these  laws  comprise  a 
multiplicity    of   little   details   which,    taken    sep- 
arately, appear  to  be  of  slight  importance  or  en- 
tirely negligible,  but  which  in  reality  have  much 
to  do  with  the  lucid  style  of  a  whole  composition, 
as  with  the  specific  clearness  of  a  single  sentence. 
Grammatical  details  concerning  the  proper  use 
and  placing  of  pronouns  cannot  safely  be  disre- 
garded by  any  one  who  desires  to  avoid  obscurity. 
The  relation  between  nouns  and  their  verbal  sub- 
stitutes has  indeed  always  been  recognized  as  a 
stumbling-block  to  most  writers;  and  the  ability 
so  to  place  pronouns  and  pronominal  expressions 
that  the  words  to  which  they  refer  cannot  he  mis- 
taken is  less  common,  even  among  author     f  note, 
than  is  desirable.    "When  T  hear  a  man  get  to  his 
its."  said  William  Cobbett,  "I  tremble  for  him"; 
and  his  sentiment  seems  to  be  warranted  when  we 
leflect  that  in  "The  0"<?pn's  English."  a  work  pro- 


IL 


THE   RUBRICS   OF   ENGLISH 


207 


I'essedly  written  to  promote  correctness  in  speaking 
and  writing,  there  occurs  an  instance  in  wiiich  no 
fewer  than  twenty-eight  other  neuter  nouns  inter- 
vene between  the  pronoun  "it"  and  the  particular 
noun  to  which  it  refers.  In  sucli  a  chapter  as  this 
one  it  may  be  well  to  substitute  for  abstract  rules 
governing  the  use  and  collocation  of  pronouns  a 
few  concrete  exemplifications  of  the  violation  of 
such  rules.  "Everybody  is  expected  to  pay  their 
pew-rent  before  next  Sunday."  The  plural  "their" 
is  wrong;  "his  or  her"  in  its  place  would  be  awk- 
ward; but  "All  are  expected,  etc.,"  or,  "It  is  ex- 
pected that  all  pew-rents  will  be  paid,  etc.,"  is  both 
clear  and  correct.  "He  told  his  pastor  he  would 
soon  get  a  letter"  should  be  recast.  "He  said  to 
his  pastor:  'You  will  [or,  I  shall]  soon  get  a  let- 
ter,' "  is  free  from  ambiguity. 

Such  recasting  of  obscure  indirect  narration 
into  the  form  of  direct  statement  is  very  often  the 
only  feasible  method  of  showing  the  true  reference 
of  English  pronouns.  No  other  method  can,  for 
instance,  so  easily  reduce  to  order  and  coherence 
so  chaotic  a  jumble  as  the  following:  "The  pastor 
wrote  the  Bishop  that  the  curate  he  recently  sent 
him  was  so  unduly  ascetic  that,  while  he  hoped  he 
would  not  injure  his  health  permanently,  he  feared 
he  would  lessen  his  efficiency  for  the  work  of  his 
ministry,  and  as  he  wouldn't  listen  to  him  he 
begged  him  to  write  to  him  advising  him  to  eat 
more,  sleep  longer,  and  take  lots  of  outdoor  exer- 
cise." By  substituting  for  some  of  the  all  too  fre- 
quent pronouns  such  nouns  or  noun-phrases  as 
"the  young  man,"  "the  ordinary,"  "the  writer," 


!>b: 


m»  .  ^LIM'iiilUJm  ..Liil  I.    IJIi 


mmm 


208 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


i  i  I  J- 


"the  pious  youth,"  it  may  be  possible  to  make  this 
sentence  clear,  even  while  preserving  the  indirect 
narrative  form;  but,  at  best,  such  substitution  would 
cause  awkwardness  or  stiltedness.  The  preferable 
correction  is  made  by  recasting  the  sentence  thus: 
"The  pastor  wrote  to  his  ordinary:  'My  dear 
Bishop,  Father  Brown,  the  curate  whom  you  re- 
cently sent  me,  is  very  ascetic — unduly  so,  in  my 
opinion.  While  his  practices  of  mortification  may 
not  permanently  injure  his  health,  I  fear  that  they 
will  lessen  the  efficiency  of  his  work  as  my  assist- 
ant. As  he  does  not  heed  my  remonstrances,  I 
should  be  obi  ^ed  if  you  would  write  him  a  kindly 
letter,  advisi  7  him  to  eat  more,  sleep  longer,  and 
take  plenty  of  outdoor  exercise.' " 

A  common  error  of  careless  writers  (and  their 
name  is  legion)  is  the  use  of  "and  which"  to  con- 
nect one  clause  with  a  previous  one  that  contains 
no  "which."  "He  laid  down  the  law  with  cock- 
sure authoritativeness  and  dogmatic  finality,  a 
habit  peculiar  to  pedagogues,  and  which  is  exas- 
perating to  all  sensible  persons."  The  insertion 
of  "which  is"  after  "habit,"  or  the  striking  out  of 
"which  is"  before  "exasperating"  will  remedy  the 
mischief.  The  confusion  that  results  from  failure 
to  give  to  every  pronoun  an  antecedent  to  which 
the  mind  mav,  or  rather  must,  refer  that  pronoun 
is  illustrated  by  the  following  ludicrous  statement, 
auotod  from  the  Woman's  Home  Companion: 
"Alfonso  XIII  was  the  son  of  Alfonso  XII,  who 
died,  five  months  before  he  was  born,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-eight."  According  to  the  construction, 
"he"  refers  of  course  to  Alfonso  XII  instead  of 


fi^^^^^^^^^^^R^HR 


-if  Jl  H  l-.VT 


THE   RUBRICS   OF   ENGLISH 


209 


Alfonso  XIII,  and,  as  a  result,  the  former  mon- 
arch's death  is  made  to  occur  before  Y  .s  birth. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  good  usage  author- 
izes the  locution  "than  whom,"  the  word  "than"  is 
a  conjunction,  not  a  preposition;  and  therefore  a 
pronoun  following  "than"  is  not  necessarily  in  the 
objective  case.  "He  can  preach  better  than  I,  but 
adverse  criticism  annoys  him  more  than  me."  "I'd 
rather  face  him  than  her,  for  she  has  a  sharper 
tongue  than  he."  "I"  and  "me"  in  the  first  of  these 
sentences  are  correct  forms,  as  are  "her"  and  "he" 
in  the  second.  "I  liked  his  sermon  the  best  of  any 
of  them."  Both  grammar  and  good  usage  demand 
"better  than  any  other"  or  "best  of  all,"  or  "better 
than  all  others."  "That  explanation  of  all  others 
he  should  have  avoided,"  is  nonsense;  an  explana- 
tion simply  cannot  be  one  of  all  others.  "Of  all 
explanations  that  is  the  one  he  should  have 
avoided,"  or,  "That  explanation,  beyond  all  others, 
he  should  have  avoided,"  is  correct. 

One  other  reflection  regarding  the  use  of  pro- 
nouns it  may  be  worth  while  to  set  down.  Tautol- 
ogy, or  the  repetition  of  the  same  word,  is  a  far  less 
grievous  offense  than  is  either  obscurity  or  am- 
biguity. Dr.  Campbell,  in  his  "Philosophy  of 
Rhetoric,"  says  on  this  point:  "It  is  easy  to  con- 
ceive that  in  numberless  instances  the  pronoun 
*he'  will  be  ambiguous,  when  two  or  more  males 
happen  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  clause  of  a 
sentence.  In  such  a  case  we  ought  always  either 
to  give  another  turn  to  the  expression,  or  to  use 
the  noun  itself,  and  not  the  pronoun;  for  when 
the  repetition  of  a  word  is  necessary  it  is  not  offen- 


14 


I 


210 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


j  Ji 

i  i  I. 


sive."  The  better  plan  is  to  alter  the  structure  of 
the  sentence  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  both  ambi- 
guity and  repetition;  but  if  there  must  be  a  sacrifice 
of  eupl.ony  or  else  of  clearness,  there  should  be 
no  hesitation  in  securing  perspicuity  rather  than 
harmony,  sense  rather  than  sound. 

Few  writers  on  English  composition  have  failed 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that,  as  our  language 
has  scarcely  any  of  those  inflections  which  in  other 
tongues,  Latin  and  Greek,  for  instance,  show  the 
mutual  relations  of  words,  the  order  and  colloca- 
tion of  the  elements  of  an  English  sentence  must 
be  looked  after  with  especial  care.  In  varying 
phraseology  all  our  modern  rhetoricians  repeat  the 
rule  laid  down  by  Dr.  Blair:  "A  capital  rule  in 
the  arrangement  of  sentences  is,  that  the  words  or 
members  most  nearly  related  should  be  placed  in 
the  sentence  as  near  to  each  other  as  possible;  so 
as  to  make  their  mutual  relations  clearly  appear." 
If,  as  we  have  seen,  the  observance  of  this  rule  is 
necessary  in  the  case  of  pronouns,  it  is  scarcely 
less  important  in  that  of  adverbs,  adverbial 
phrases,  and  similar  modifying  elements.  The 
writer  who  has  learned  how  to  place  in  their  ex- 
actly proper  position  such  adverbs  as  only,  wholly, 
at  least,  at  all  events,  perhaps,  indeed,  in  fact,  and 
too,  has  mastered  half  the  secret  of  constructing 
sentences  that  are  clear. 

A  pertinent  observation  concerning  the  use  of 
some  of  these  adverbs  by  priests  is  that  the  wrong 
position  of  the  words  matters  less  in  spoken  than 
in  written  sentences.  In  preaching  a  sermon  our 
tone    and    emphasis    frequently    suffice    to    show 


^2Pi\?cr 


^•'•<'T:: '-■.,■  mi- ■'  V, 


.J!lf.rt 


S^ 


.,* 


THE    RUBRICS   OF    ENGLISH 


211 


clearly  a  reference  which  is  not  at  all  apparent 
when  the  words  are  set  down  in  the  same  order  in 
writing  or  in  print.       I  only  mentioned  last  Sun- 
day in  speaking  of  tlu'  sacrament  of  Penance  one 
of  the  qualities  of  contrition,"  says  the  preacher; 
and  the  emphasis  he  gives  to  "one"  indicates  that 
it  is  the  word  to  which  "only"  is  meant  to  refer. 
His  hearers  understand  him,  and  hence,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  his  spoken  sentence  is  clear. 
As  printed  above,  however,  it  is  not  clear,  at  least 
not  immediately  so,  to  the  reader.    From  its  posi- 
tion, "only"  seems  to  modify  "mentioned,"  and  we 
are  led  to  expect  some  such  subsequent  clause  as 
"I  did  not  dwell  upon,"  or  "1  did  not  insist  upon." 
Had  the  preacher  said,  "In  speaking  last  Sunday 
on  the  sacrament  of  Penance,  1  mentioned  one  only 
of  the  qualities  of  contrition,"  his  sentence  would 
have  been  clear  to  the  eye  as  well  as  to  the  ear. 
"Of  the  relative  piety  or  indifference  shown  by  the 
Catholics  of  our  city  you  may  judge  for  yourself 
from  the  statement  that  in  two  parishes  only  three 
hundred  communicants  daily  approach  the  Holy 
Table."    As  spoken,  that  sentence  may  have  been 
quite  clear;  as  written,  it  is  unmista''  '^ly  ambig- 
uous.    It  contains  praise  or  blamf  'rding  as 
"only"  is  made  to  refer  to  "two  pi  .  .  es"  or  to 
"three    hundred    communicants."     Nor    can    the 
faulty  construction  bo  justified  by  saying  that  the 
placing  of  a  comma  after  "only"  will  remove  the 
ambiguity.    Punctuiition  is  useful,  but  the  sense  of 
such  a  statement  as  the  foregoing  should  not  be 
left  to  the  mercy  of  a  comma,    if  the  sentence  is 
not  recast,  "only"  should  be  replaced  by  "alone." 


1 


AT^rTI^SrjTi^TT^FTtt^ 


212 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


; 


A  rather  fantastic  use,  or  misuse,  of  a  particular 
adverb  appears  at  present  to  be  coming  into  fash- 
ion, especially  among  such  of  the  occasionally  in- 
devout  female  sex  as  write  "best  sellers."  It  is  the 
employment  of  "too"  at  the  beginning  of  a  sen- 
tence. "Too,  he  wan  considered  to  be  the  hand- 
somest member  of  the  group."  "Too,  she  longed 
for  the  restfulness  of  the  old  home  atmosphere." 
It  is  surely  bad  enough  to  begin  an  independent 
sentence  with  "however";  to  give  the  same  promi- 
nence to  "too"  is  to  take  intolerable  liberties  with 
an  inoffensive  word.  To  find  an  equally  grotesque 
misuse  of  the  word,  one  has  to  recall  the  compli- 
mentary terms  i--  which  the  three  Highlanders  re- 
ferred to  the  liquor  proffered  them  by  their  laird : 
"  'Tis  the  best  whiskey,"  declared  Sandy,  "I  never 
drank  in  all  my  born  days."— "So  did  I,  neither," 
commented  Aleck.  And  Jock  corroborated  both 
statements  with,  "Neither  did  I,  too." 

"I  haven't  smoked  all  morning,"  said  a  cleric 
recently.  "Neither  have  I,"  replied  one  of  his  hear- 
ers, but  all  the  same  I've  enjoyed  two  cigars  since 
breakfast."  "I  haven't  all  morning  had  a  smoke," 
was  the  first  speaker's  meaning.  "Dean  Sullivan 
spoke  of  the  suggestion  that  the  Pope's  proposals 
for  peace  might  be  rejected  with  absolute  con- 
tempt." The  meaning  here  is  probably  that  the 
Dean  spoke  with  absolute  contempt  of  the  sugges- 
tion mentioned;  but  the  position  of  the  modifying 
phrase  seems  to  imply  that  the  Pope's  proposals 
might  be  contemptuously  rejected.  "I  never  expect 
to  be  a  bishop,"  modestly  affirms  Father  Byrnes. 
His  presumable  meaning  is  not  what  his  phrase- 


THE   RUBRICS   OP   ENGLISH 


213 


ology  indicates :  that,  although  he  habitually  thinks 
a  good  deal  about  the  episcopal  dignity,  he  does  not 
ever  admit  the  probability  of  his  eventually  wear- 
ing the  purple.  What  he  really  intends  to  say  is : 
"I  have  never  expected,  nor  do  I  now  expect,  to 
be  a  bishop,"  or,  more  briefly,  "I  do  not  believe 
that  I  shall  ever  be  a  bishop."  Some  examples  of 
the  misplacement  of  "only"  have  already  been 
given.  The  editors  of  the  Standard  Dictionary 
make  a  statement  which  should  prove  I'.n  eff'ective 
substitute  for  numberless  other  examples:  "Some 
years  ago  a  critic  showed  that,  by  the  principles 
of  permutrtion.  a  short  paragraph  of  a  noted  Eng- 
lish writer,  containing  several  onlys,  might  have 
any  one  of  about  five  thousand  meanings," 

This  chapter,  however,  has  already  grown  to  an 
inordinate  length,  and  it  must,  therefore,  even  at 
the  cost  of  symmetry  and  rounded-out  complete- 
ness, be  brought  to  a  speedy  conclusion.  Needless 
to  say,  there  are  dozens  of  other  linguistic  rubrics 
of  which  no  mention  has  been  made  in  the  preced- 
ing paragraphs — rules  relating  to  such  qualities  of 
a  sentence  as  unity,  force,  ease,  and  harmony;  and, 
even  with  respect  to  clearness,  what  has  been  said 
is  suggestive  rather  than  in  any  sense  exhaustive. 
A  full  treatise,  not  a  mere  chapter  of  a  book,  would 
be  needed  for  the  adequate  discussion  of  words 
and  sentences,  even  if  little  or  no  space  were  ac- 
corded to  those  larger  structures  of  language  in 
composition,  the  paragraph,  the  chapter,  and  the 
discourse  or  the  book  as  a  whole.  Despite  its 
manifold  deficiencies,  however,  this  essay  will 
serve  its  essential  purpose  if  it  revives  in  even  a 


I      3 


214 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


few  readers  their  possibly  waning  interest  in  the 
art  of  writing  and  stimulates  thein  to  exercise  addi- 
tional care  in  the  expression  of  their  thought. 

One  other  reflection  is  scarcely  omissible.  Cler- 
ical critics  who  deride  attention  to  the  minor  points 
in  the  rubrics  of  English,  like  those  who  scoff  at 
the  little  things  in  the  rubrics  properly  so  called, 
are  unmistakably  at  fault.  The  slipshod,  slovenly 
writer  or  speaker  who  brands  any  discrimination 
in  the  choice  of  words  as  purism,  and  pooh-poohs 
all  care  about  placing  words,  phrases,  and  clauses 
in  their  proper  positions  as  undue  punctiliousness, 
is  as  illogical  as  he  is  apt  to  be  overbearing.  "After 
all,  one  must  credit  one's  hearers  or  readers  with 
some  degree  of  intelligence,"  is  a  statement  the 
truth  of  which  no  one  is  likely  to  call  in  question, 
but  its  truth  does  not  furnish  a  vahd  excuse  for 
obscurity  or  ambiguity  in  the  sentences  addressed 
to  such  readers  or  hearers. 

Common  sense,  not  less  than  grammar  or  rhet- 
oric, demands  that  the  meaning  of  one's  sentences 
not  only  may  be,  but  must  be,  understood.  The 
reason  is  clear,  at  least  to  all  who  have  studied  the 
philosophy  of  style,  and  especially  to  those  who  are 
familiar  with  Herbert  Spencer's  admirable  discus- 
sion of  the  economy  of  attention.  The  gist  o  that 
discussion  is  contained  in  the  following  brief  para- 
graph: "A  reader  or  listener  has  at  each  moment 
but  a  limited  amount  of  mental  power  available. 
To  recognize  and  interpret  the  symbols  presented 
to  him  requires  part  of  this  power;  to  arrange  and 
combine  the  images  suggested  requires  a  further 
pari;  and  only  that  part  which  remains  can  be  used 


THE    RUBRICS    OF    ENGLISH 


215 


for  realizing  the  thought  conveyed.  Hence,  the 
more  time  and  attention  it  takes  to  receive  and 
understand  each  sentence,  the  less  time  and  atten- 
tion can  be  given  to  the  contained  idea;  and  the 
less  vividly  will  that  idea  be  conceived."  It  will 
perhaps  be  admitted  by  the  readers  of  this  book 
that  the  concluding  words  of  the  quotation  consti- 
tute a  fairly  complete  justification  of  this  whole 
chapter. 


fWwewmnBPanRii 


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AVPLi' 


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Wf- 


A  CLERICAL  CLUB -NIGHT 

The  flute  ftnd  the  psaltery  make  a  sweet  melody,  but  a  pleMaitt 
tongue  is  above  them  both. — Ecclut.:  cl,  tl. 


Misce  stultitiam  conciliis  brevem, 
Dulce  est  desiper*  in  loco. 


— Horace. 


Conversation  should  be  pleasant  without  scurrility,  witty  with- 
out affectation,  free  without  indecency,  learned  without  conceited- 
ness,  novel  without  falsehood.— SAofcc«peare. 

THE  August  meeting  of  the  Dors  Clnb*  was 
unusually  well  attended,  partly  because  the 
July  meeting  had  been  postponed  in  consequence 
of  the  recent  death  of  the  Ordinary  of  the  diocese, 
and  partly  because  several  out-of-town  members 
had  come  to  Anyopolis  for  the  Eucharistic  Con- 
gress. The  Club's  quarters  for  the  evening  had 
been  established  in  Dean  O'Reilly's  spacious  study 
and  smoking-room;  and  the  Dean's  vivacious 
assistant,  Father  Lavers,  was  just  passing  arouuu 
the  cigars  for  the  initial  smoke  when  a  chorus  of 
welcoming  voices  greeted  the  entrance  of  the  asso- 
ciation's president  emeritus.  Father  John  Regan. 
Thereafter : 

Dean  O'Reilly.  Welcome,  Father  John:  you're 
well  come  indeed.  I  was  beginning  to  fear  I 
wouldn't  have  your  help  to-night  in  restraining 
the  exuberance  of  some  of  our  high-strung 
fellow-Dorsites  here.  Hogan  and  Dempsey,  to 
say  nothing  of  these  younger  chaps,  McGarrigle, 

1  An  association  of  priests  mentioned  In  one  of  the  author's 
previous  volumes,  "Clerical  Colloquies." 

216 


i*J'Y, 


■■iP'^'/.:V'.\ 


,,U..i,-.V,'J/'.^^^.    rv 


A  CLERICAL  CLUB-NIGHT 


217 


Lavers  A  Co.,  are  evidently  expecting  a  boister- 
ous evening,  while  Eversley  looks  for  all  the 
world  as  if,  like  the  war-horse  in  Job,  "he  sniell- 
eth  the  battle  afar  otf." 

Mgr.  Eversley.  Don't  you  believe  him.  Father 
John;  we're  all  very  peaceably  inclined.  Per- 
sonally, I'm  simply  anticipating  some  good 
stories  from  our  friends  from  the  rural  districts. 
It  has  been  some  time  since  we've  had  Fathers 
Brawley  and  Hennessy  at  the  Club  together, 

Fr.  John.  Hello,  Father  Jerry.  I  didn't  know  you 
were  in  town.  Why  haven't  you  been  up  to  the 
house? 

Fr.  Brawley.  I  just  got  in  an  hour  ago,  Father 
John;  and  O'Connor  insisted  on  my  coming 
over  here  to  meet  all  the  fellows.  I'll  be  up  to 
see  you  before  returning  to  St.  Hubert,  how- 
ever. In  the  meantime,  how  are  Mrs.  Dolan 
and  Maggie  and  Tim? 

Fr.John.  All  well,  though  Tim  complains  occa- 
sionally of  his  "sciattcky."  Mrs.  Dolan  will  be 
delighted  to  see  that  they  haven't  starved  you, 
out  at  St.  Hubert.  You're  loo.ang  stout  and 
hearty,  Jerry. 

Fr.  Hogan.  I  say,  Hennessy,  what'*?  the  talk  down 
5'our  way  about  our  next  bishop? 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Well,  we  are  rather  expecting  to 
hear,  any  day,  that  our  friend  the  Dean  here 
has  been  notified  of  his  appointment. 

Fr.  hogan.  I'm  afraid  that  would  be  too  good  to 
be  true.  As  the  French  say,  'tis  the  unexpected 
that  always  happens:  and  in  all  probability 
we'll  get  an  outsider. 


~^>%.      ^JT^M 


218 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Fr.  Dempxey.  I'm  not  so  sure  of  that.  It  would 
be  pretty  hard  to  find  men  better  fitted  for  the 
position  than  some  of  our  own  clerics;  and  I 
shall  not  be  a  bit  surprised  if  our  next  bishop 
proves  to  be  one  of  our  diocesan  brethren,  or 
even  one  of  our  Club's  members. 

Fr.Lavers.  Thanks,  ever  so  much,  Fath».r  Larry; 
but  don't  you  think  I'm  a  little  young  yet  for  so 
responsible  an  office? 

Fr.  John.  You're  getting  over  your  youth.  Tommy ; 
but  your  inveterate  solemnity  and  habitual  taci- 
turnity spoil  your  chances  so  far  as  the  purple 
is  concerned.  Joking  aside,  I  suppose  wc  shall 
be  getting  news  of  the  appointment  very  'oon 
now.  'Tis  over  a  month  since  the  bishop's 
funeral. 

Fr.  McGarn'gle.  Six  weeks,  next  Wednesday.  As 
one  reason  given  for  adopting  the  new  plan  of 
episcopal  appointments  was  the  comparative 
quickness  with  which  they  could  be  made,  I'm 
rather  surprised  that  the  announcement  hasn't 
appeared  already. 

Fr.  O'Connor.  Apropos  of  the  new  plan,  what  do 
the  priests  in  your  section  of  the  diocese  think 
of  its  merits,  Brawley? 

Fr.  Brawlei].  On  the  whole,  their  views  are  decid- 
edlv  favorable.  True,  one  or  two  of  the  con- 
snltors  and  irremovable  rectors  are  a  little  dis- 
gruntled because  of  t  ■  ;  Vssencd  importance 
in  the  matter  of  nam  '  ^le  bishop;  but  the 
general  opinion  seems  to  bo  that  the  new  plan 
will  work  out  better  than  the  old. 

Fr.  Hoqan.    By  the  way,  Fversley,  I  had  a  visit  the 


'UajJ-r'-i-..^ 


R^BV^^ 


A    CLERICAL   CLUH-NIOHT 


219 


other  day  from  the  Vicar-Clcncral  of  Ncally- 
ville,  and  he  ralher  intimated  that  the  new  i\v- 
cree  of  tlie  Consistorial  Congregation  is  not  too 
favorably  hmked  on  by  our  bishops  thcinsoivcs. 
What  do  you  think? 
Mgr.  Everslcy.    There's  nothing  in  it,  Tim.    In  the 
first  plaee,  the  original  draft  of  the  decree  was 
sent  to  ever>  bisli oj)  in  tlie  country  to  inform 
him  as  to  what  was  proposed,  and  to  get  his 
views  concerning  modifications  which  he  might 
consider  necessarv';  and  a  large  majority  of  the 
prelates  expressed  themselves  in  favor  of  the 
change.    In  the  second  place,  the  advantages  of 
the  new  plan  are  so  patent  that  a  man  who  has 
had  experience  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  old 
style  of  proposing  names  of  candidates  for  a 
vacant  see  can  scarcely  fail  to  acknowledge  and 
approve  them. 
Fr.Hennessy.     What     particular     disadvantages, 
apart  from  occasional  long  delays  in  making 
the  appointment,  were  inherent  in  the  old  plan? 
Mgr.  Eversley.    Well,  one  of  them  was  pointed  out 
in  a  document  issued  by  the  Congregation  of 
the    Consistory    about    seven    years    ago.      It 
strictly  forbade  the  publication  of  the  names  of 
the  candidates  and  enjoined  the  utmost  secrecy 
concerning  the  deliberations  of  the  clergy  and 
the  bishops  in  selecting  the  terna. 
Fr.John.    An  excellent  regulation,  too.    I  remem- 
ber when,  a  good  many  years  ago,  it  became 
generally  known  that  the  late  Father  Timmons' 
name  headed  the  terna  for  the  diocese  of  Tro- 
cario,  and  then  the  appointment  went  to  a  priest 


220 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


from  another  diocese  altogether,  poor  Timmons 
felt  pretty  bad.  He  couldn't  get  it  out  of  his 
head  that  some  reflection  had  been  cast  upon 
either  his  ability  or  his  character,  or  both. 

Fr.Dempsey.  Yes;  and  another  disadvantage  of 
the  old  system  was  that  the  new  bishop  almost 
invariably  felt  himself  somewhat  handicapped 
by  his  knowing,  as  of  course  he  did,  who  had 
voted  for  him,  and  who  against.  It  made  his 
position  a  little  delicate  in  a  number  of  circum- 
stances, and  occasionally  restricted  his  full  free- 
dom of  action.  There'll  be  none  of  that  incon- 
venience under  the  new  system. 

Dean  O'Reilly.  On  the  face  of  it,  don't  you  think, 
the  new  method  should  commend  itself  to  all 
of  us.  If  we  have  the  elementary  good  sense  to 
credit  Rome  with  knowing  its  own  business 
pretty  nearly  as  well  as  we  profess  to  know 
ours,  the  presumption  is  certainly  in  favor  of 
the  new  decree.  Loyalty  to  the  Church  de- 
mands our  willing  adhesion  to  her  disciplinary 
rulings,  and  censorious  criticism  of  this  par- 
ticular ruling  is  at  least  premature.  Objectors 
may  well  wait  until  we  see  how  the  system 
works  out  in  practice. 

Mgr.  Everslej.  And  even  if  it  doesn't  work  so  well 
as  Rome  hopes  it  will,  provision  is  made  in  the 
decree  itself  for  the  trial  of  some  other  plan. 
Its  final  clause  states  that  the  decree  shall  be 
in  force  "ad  nutum  Sedis  Apostolicae."  In  the 
meantime,  I  think  we  may  all  rest  assured  that 
our  next  bishop,  no  matter  where  he  may  come 
from,  will  justify  Rome's  wisdom  in  selecting 


A   CLERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


221 


him.  So  far  as  I  know,  every  prelate  whose 
appointment  in  this  country  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century  came  as  a  surprise,  be- 
cause he  was  chosen  outside  the  tenia,  has 
invariably  made  good. 

Fr.Lauers.  All  of  which  is  doubtless  very  inter- 
esting; but  I  have  a  hunch  that  Fathers  Brawley 
and  Hennessy  didn't  come  over  here  to-night  to 
talk  shop,  or  listen  to  it,  either.  I  move,  accord- 
ingly, that  we  change  the  subject. 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  I  second  the  motion — and  declare 
it  carried.  What's  the  last  good  thing  you've 
heard  in  the  line  of  stories.  Father  Jerry? 

Fr.  Brawley.  Stories!  What  stories,  save  chest- 
nuts, do  you  suppose  we  get  hold  of  out  in  the 
country?  If  you  can  stand  a  chestnut,  how- 
ever, the  best  one  I  have  come  across  in  a  long 
while  is  Francis  Murphy's  introduction  to  an 
after-dinner  speech  in  London  at  a  St.  Patrick's 
Day  banquet.  "I'm  American,"  said  he,  "by 
residence,  English  by  language,  Irish  by  extrac- 
tion, and  half  Scotch  and  half  soda  by  choice." 

Fr.Lavers.  That's  all  right,  all  right.  Father 
Hennessy,  what's  your  latest? 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Like  Father  Brawley's,  the  one  I've 
enjoyed  best  of  late  months  is  not  new.  I  pre- 
sume most  of  you  have  read  it  in  Shane  Les- 
lie's "The  End  of  a  Chapter."  Tis  about  the 
challenge  sent  by  the  football  captain  of  the 
Jesuit  school,  Beaumont,  to  the  captain  of  Eton 
College.  With  charactf-'stic  superciliousness, 
the  Eton  man  asked:  v^hat  is  Beaumont?" 
The  answer  "vras  really  worth  while:    "Beau- 


222 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


mont  is  what  Eton  was — a  school  for  Catholic 
gentlemen !" 

Fr.  Galligan.  Good  for  Beaumont :  that  was  a  su- 
perb retort.  Speaking  of  retorts,  by  the  by,  a 
quiet  old  monk  from  St.  Isidore's  got  otf  a  fairly 
good  one  down  at  Father  Anderson's  last  week. 
About  a  dozen  of  us  had  been  attending  the 
closing  of  Anderson's  Forty  Hours,  and  were 
having  a  smoke  and  a  chat  in  the  rectory,  after 
the  services.  Father  Jack  Quinn  had  been 
quizzing  the  religious  for  some  time,  and  finally 
said:  "You  know.  Father  Dominic,  you  regu- 
lars take  the  vow  of  poverty  and  .  ." — 
"And,"  interrupted  the  monk,  "you  seculars  say 
you  keep  it.  The  remark  is  about  as  true  nowa- 
days as  it  was  when  originally  made — to  a  bare- 
footed friar  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  an 
Italian  pastor  who  subsequently  lost  his  parish 
because  of  his  simoniacal  practices."  Jack 
didn't  quiz  the  old  man  any  more,  you  may  be 
sure. 

Fr.Hogan.  Not  at  all  bad,  and  Quinn  deserved 
what  he  got.  That  joke  about  the  vow  of  pov- 
erty was  blue-moldy  when  I  was  an  altar-boy. 
I  wonder,  by  the  way,  whether  there  is  any 
other  form  of  wit  so  generally  popular,  among 
intellectual  people  at  least,  as  the  clever  rejoin- 
der, the  bright  repartee.  I  confess  I  enjoy  it 
most,  especially  if  'tis  unsullied  by  any  taint 
of  malice. 

Fr.Lavers.  Give  us  a  sample  of  the  kind  you 
prefer.  Father  Tim. 

Fr.  Hogan.    Well,  take  Charles  Lamb's  reply  to  the 


mm 


A   CLERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


223 


reproach  of  his  superior  in  the  India  House, 
"You  always  come  late  to  the  ollice."— "Yes,  but 
see  how  early  I  leave."  Or  Sydney  Smith's  an- 
swer to  the  doctor  who  reconunended  him  to 
take  a  walk  on  an  empty  stomach.  "On 
whose?"  inquired  Sydney.  Or  the  riposte  of 
the  Austrian  journahst  to  his  enemy  wiiom  he 
met  in  a  narrow  passage  and  who  accosted  him 
with,  "I'll  not  make  way  to  let  a  fool  pass."— 
"But  /  will,"  said  the  journalist,  pressing  himseif 
against  the  wall. 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  What's  the  matter  with  the  suffra- 
gette's reply  to  a  heckler  in  her  audience  who 
sneeringly  asked,  "What  would  you  do,  madam, 
if  you  were  a  gentleman?" — "I'm  not  sure,"  she 
replied;  "what  would  you  do  if  you  were  one?" 

Fr.  Dempsey.  That  recalls  Boyle  O'Reilly's  de- 
lightful reply  to  a  member  of  the  Papyrus  Club. 
Boyle  was  making  a  humorous  speech  one 
evening,  and  in  the  course  of  it  ventilated  some 
extravagant  opinions.  "That's  not  right;  that's 
Irish,"  interrupted  a  fellow-member.  "'Tis 
better  to  be  Irish  than  be  right,"  coolly  replied 
O'Reilly;  and  he  proceeded  to  get  off  some  more 
delicious  fooling. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Just  here  is  where  the  association 
of  ideas  comes  in.  The  first  connotation  of 
"O'Reilly"  in  my  mind  is  his  poem  on  Wendell 
Phillips;  and  the  thought  of  the  great  abolition- 
ist brings  to  mind  his  rather  crushiprt  retort  to 
a  Methodist  minister.  Do  you  all  remember  it? 
No?  Well,  Phillips  had  been  lecturing  on  aboli- 
tion in  a  Western  city  one  evening,  and,  the 


224 


SA'^IERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


j 


I!  i 


following  morning,  was  on  a  train  going  East. 
In  the  same  car  with  him  was  a  group  of  some 
twenty  Methodist  parsons  who  had  been  attend- 
ing a  conference  the  day  before.    One  of  the 
ministers,  a  big,  burly,  black-whiskered  fellow, 
learning  from  the  conductor  that  the  quiet  gen- 
tleman in  the  rear  seat  was  the  Boston  orator, 
accosted  him  with :    "Ah,  you're  Wendell  Phil- 
lips,   are    you,    sir?"  — "Yes,    sir;    that's    my 
name."— "Well,  sir,  I  was  just  thinking  of  writ- 
ing you  a  letter."— "I  have  no  doubt  I  should 
have  much  pleasure  in  reading  it,"  courteously 
replied  Phillips. — "No,  you  wouldn't;  no,  you 
wouldn't,  sir,"  said  tho  parson  in  an  aggressive 
tone  and  so  loudly  as  to  attract  the  attention  of 
all  the  passengers;  "I  was  going  to  give  you  a 
piece  of  my  mind,  sir.     I  want  you  to  under- 
stand that  you've  no  business  to  come  out  West 
here  talking  abolition.    We  have  no  slaves  here. 
Why  don't  you  go  down  South  and  lecture?" — 
"You  are  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  are  you  not. 
sir?"   mildly  inquired   Phillips.— "Yes,   sir;    I 
am." — "And  it  is  your  mission  to  save  souls 
from  hell,  is  it  not?"— "Yes,  sir;  it  is.— "Well, 
then,  why  don't  you  go  there?" 

Fr.  Lavers.  About  as  polite  a  way  of  telling  a  man 
to  go  to  Hades  as  ever  I  heard  of. 

F: .  Brawleij.  By  the  way,  wasn't  it  Wendell  Phil- 
lips who  said,  in  his  lecture  on  "The  Lost  Arts," 
that  there  are  only  eleven  original  jokes  in  the 
world  ? 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  Possibly,  but  you  must  remember 
that  when  he  made  that  statement  Bradley 
hadn't  been  created  a  Monsignor. 


mtmM 


A   CLERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


225 


Dean  O'Reilly.  Come,  come,  Father  George;  don't 
allow  your  wit  to  rout  your  charity.  Father 
Piadley  is  an  exemplary  priest,  and  moreover — 
he  is  not  here. 

Fr.McGarrigle.  Oh,  well,  I  wouldn't  mind  saying 
that  to  his  face. 

Fr.  Hogan.  Then,  let  me  tell  you,  young  man,  that 
you  should  mind.  Old  Sam  Jolmson  was  quite 
right  when  he  said  that  a  man  has  no  more 
right  to  say  an  uncivil  thing  than  to  act  one;  no 
more  right  to  say  a  rude  thing  to  another  than 
to  knock  him  down. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Besides  which.  Father  George,  you 
should  remember  that  what  used  to  be  called 
"twitting  on  facts"  is  not  a  very  gentlemanly 
proceeding.  There's  a  French  saying  that  some 
one  has  turned  into  English,  to  the  effect  that 

The  vilest  of  all  cowards  for  whom  contempt  is  felt 
Is  the  dastard  verbal  boxer  who  hits  below  the  belt. 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  Enough  said :  I  apologize.  Tran- 
seat  Bradley,  Who  knows  any  other  good  re- 
torts, ancient  or  modern? 

Fr.  Lavers.  Well,  I've  heard  worse  ones  than 
Charlie  Foley's  come-back  at  the  cross-eyed  fel- 
low with  whom  he  collided  while  turning  a 
corner  in  Chicago.  "Confound  you,"  said  the 
cross-eyed  chap,  "why  don't  you  look  where 
you're  going?"  —  "Confound  yourself,"  said 
Charlie,  "why  don't  vou  go  where  you're  look- 
ing?" 

Fr.  John.  The  repartee  that  has  always  impressed 
me  as  being  a  gem  of  pure  wit  is  O'ConneU's 

IB 


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226 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


i  s 


amendment  to  the  motion  of  the  Orange  mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Commons,  Sir  Thomas 
Massy-Massy.  The  motion  was  to  tlie  effect 
that,  as  "mass"  was  a  popish  word,  "tide" 
should  be  substituted  for  it  in  English  com- 
pounds, so  that  Christmas,  Candlemas,  etc., 
should  be  called  "Christide,"  "Candletide,"  and 
so  on.  "I  move  in  amendment,"  said  O'Connell, 
"that  the  honorable  gentleman  set  the  example 
by  styling  himself,  not  Sir  Thomas  Massy-Massy, 
but  Sir  Thotide  Tidy-Tidy." 

Dean  O'Reilly.  Well,  my  favorite  is  the  reply,  in 
the  same  House  of  Commons,  of  an  Irish  Na- 
tionalist to  a  bitter  auti-Irish  speech  of  Joe 
Chamberlain,  away  back  in  1886.  Chamber- 
lain was  something  over  six  feet  in  height,  and, 
not  being  stout,  looked  still  taller.  He  had 
broken  with  Gladstone  and  in  this  particular 
speech  was  especially  vitriolic  against  Home 
Rule.  No  sooner  had  he  taken  his  seat  than  an 
Irish  member  took  the  floor,  beginning  his  reply 
with,  "Mr.  Speaker,  the  physical  conformation 
of  the  gentleman  who  has  just  spoken,  and  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  speech,  irresistibly  remind 
me  of  a  line  in  which  a  British  poet  describes 
the  London  Monument,  which,  he  says,  'Like 
a  tall  bully  lifts  its  head  and  lies.' " 

Fr.  Lavers.    A  bully  retort,  indeed. 

Mgr.  Eversley.  "Facilis  descensus  Averno" :  we're 
getting  down  to  puns,  I  see. 

Fr.  O'Connor.  And  why  getting  down  to  them, 
pray? 

Mgr.  Eversley.    Because  the  pun  is  admittedly  an 


A    CLERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


227 


5 

=3 


inferior  species  of  wit.  The  American  autocrat 
says  that,  on  the  face  of  it,  a  pun  is  an  insult  to 
the  person  you  are  talking  with. 

Fr.  O'Connor.  A  mere  literarj'  trick  to  introduce 
a  dozen  puns  of  his  own — the  talk  of  total  de- 
pravity being  merely  "deep  raving,"  the  cosine 
of  Noah's  ark,  the  Deluge  being  a  "deal  huger" 
than  any  modern  inundation,  etc. 

Fr.  Lovers.  Ton  my  word,  O'Connor,  you're  com- 
ing out.  But,  say,  Monsignor,  do  you  mean  to 
tell  us  that  you've  never  heard  a  really  good 
pun,  one  that  yor.  have  thoroughly  enjoyed? 

Mgr.  Eversley.  A  good  many  people.  Father  Tom, 
hold  that  the  worst  puns  are  the  best;  and  I 
confess  I've  heard  some  pretty  bad  ones.  Of 
course  there  are  exceptions  to  all  rules,  and  I 
don't  mind  admitting  that  the  Irishman's  pun 
on  "treason"  is  worth  while.  I'm  reminded  of 
it  by  the  references  just  made  to  the  House  of 
Commons.  A  Nationalist  who  was  making  a 
red-hot  anti-British  speech  was  interrupted  by 
an  English  member's  crying  out,  "Treason,  trea- 
son!" The  Irish  member  replied:  "The  hon- 
orable gentleman  should  remember  that  'trea- 
son' in  England  becomes  'reason'  in  Ireland, 
because  of  the  absentee.' 

Fr.  Galligan.    A  tce-hee  giggl^  is  in  order,  Lavers. 

Fr.  Dempseif.  For  my  part,  I  don't  object  to  an 
occasional  pun,  especially  if  it  be  in  verse.  One 
that  went  the  rounds  of  the  press  when  I  was  a 
youngster  always  tickled  my  risibilities.  You 
fellows  still  in  your  twenties  may  not  have 
heard  it. 


i 


228 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


A  famous  American  preacher 

Said  the  hen  was  a  beautiful  creature. 

The  hen,  upon  that, 

Laid  an  eper  in  his  hat, 
And  thus  did  the  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

Dean  O'Reilly.  Well,  Father  Larry,  if  these  young 
fellows  have  never  heard  that  limerick  be- 
fore, they  are  probably  unacquainted  with  the 
equally  venerable  conundrum:  Why  is  there 
no  need  of  people's  being  hungry  in  the  desert? 
Because  of  the  sand  which  is  there.  How  did 
the  sandwiches  come  there?  Ham  and  his 
descendants  were  bred  and  mustered  there. 
Yes,  but  besides  ham  and  bread  and  mustard, 
a  perfect  sandwich  needs  some  bul.;r:  how  did 
they  get  the  butter?  Why,  when  Lot  was  driven 
out  of  Sodom,  his  wife  was  turned  into  salt,  and 
all  the  family  but  her  ran  into  the  desert. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Pretty  rank,  that;  but  'tis  no  worse 
than  one  I  came  across  the  other  day  In  a  music 
journal.    The  skit  runs: 

During  the  sermon  one  of  the  quartet 
fell  asleep.  "Now's  your  chants,"  said  the 
organist  to  the  soprano;  "see  if  you  canti- 
cle the  tenor."  —  "You  wouldn't  dare 
duet,"  said  the  contralto. — "You'll  wake 
hymn  up,"  suggested  the  bass. — "I  can 
make  a  better  pun  than  that,  as  sure  as 
my  name's  Psalm,"  remarked  the  bov 
who  pumped  the  organ;  but  he  said  it 
solo  that  no  one  quartet. 

Fr.  Lavers.  O  war !— or  Sherman's  syncmym  there* 
fdr,  bti!  tile's  the  lunft! 


m 


:^n*!a''TBnB!*CBa?"^iBrr""a9 


A    CLERICAL    CLUH-NIOIIT 


229 


Fr.  Brawley.  Sherman's  characterization  of  war 
recalls  the  note  sent  by  a  young  Egyptian  to 
Lord  Cromer  during  the  hitter's  sojourn  in 
British  Africa.  Have  you  all  heard  it?  The 
note  was  a  complaint,  and  it  began:  "O  hell! 
Lordship's  face  grow  red  when  he  hear  quite 
beastly  behavior  of  Public  Works  Department 
towards  his  humble  servant." 

Fr.  John.  How  many  of  you  younger  men,  I  won- 
der, can  quote  the  original  sentence,  of  which 
Sherman's  over-quoted  remark  is  only  the  terse 
abridgment? 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  Not  1,  for  one.  Did  any  one,  !  - 
fore  Sherman,  say  that  war  is  hell? 

Fr.  John.  Not  in  just  that  form  of  words,  perhaps; 
but  in  the  seventeenth  century  Lord  Clarendon, 
the  historian,  wrote :  "We  cannot  make  a  more 
lively  representation  and  emblem  to  ourselves 
of  hell,  than  by  the  view  of  a  kingdom  in  war." 

Fr.  O'Connor.  So  you  think  our  American  general 
was  a  plagiarist,  do  you? 

Fr.John.  Oh,  no;  at  least  not  a  conscious  one. 
What  used  to  be  called  unconscious  cerebration 
would  account  for  his  remark,  and  his  boiling 
down  the  historian's  dictum  undoubtedly  in- 
creased its  vivacity  and  point. 

Fr.  Hogan.  We've  traveled  quite  a  distance  from 
the  retort  or  repartee;  but  before  we  leave  the 
subject,  here's  a  good  imtance  t  has  just 
come  to  my  mind.  Years  ago,,  v/hen  Cardinal 
Taschereau  used  to  share  an  evening  walk  with 
some  of  the  fellows  at  Laval  University,  a  friend 
of  mine,  Father  M.  of  Prince  Edward  Island, 


230 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


was  cliatting  one  night  out  mi  the  recreation 
yard  with  two  or  three  companions.  The  con- 
versation was  in  English.  The  Cardinal,  hap- 
pening along,  stopped  and  alter  listening  a 
moment,  smilingly  asked :  "Do  you  think,  Mr. 
M.,  that  the  good  (iod  understands  English/^ 
"I  don't  see  why  He  shouldn't,  your  Eminence," 
replied  M.;  "He  hears  more  of  it  than  of  any 
other  language."  Rather  neat,  eh? 
Fr.  Hennessy.  That  seminary  reminiscence  puts 
me  in  mind  of  a  question  I've  been  intending 
for  some  months  past  to  ask  vou.  Father  John; 
and,  as  it  has  to  do  with  clerical  wit,  or  alleged 
wit,  this  is  perhaps  the  appropriate  time  for  it. 
I  presume  you  all  saw,  some  time  last  year,  that 
humorous  abridgment  of  the  breviary  that  ap- 
peared in  several  Catholic  papers,  did  you  not? 
[A  chorus  of  "No,"  "Not  1."  "What  abridg- 
ment?" etc.,  being  heard  in  reply,  the  speaker 
continued.]  Well,  I  have  the  clipping  in  my 
wallet  here,  and,  with  your  permission,  I'll  read 
it  for  you : 

RITUS  BREVISSIMUS  RECITANDI  BRE- 
VIARIUM  PRO  ITINERANTIBUS  ET 
SCRUPULOSIS. 
Dicatur    Pater  ct  Ave. 
Deinde     ABCDEFGHIJKL 
MNOPQRSTUVWXY. 
V.   Per  hoc  alphabetum  notum. 
R.    Componitur  Breviarium 
totum. 
Tempore  Paschali.  dicetur  alleluia. 
Oremus. 
Deus,      qui      ex      vigintiquatuor      Uteris 


A   CLERICAL   CLUH-NKIHT 


231 


totain  sacrum  scri|)Uirnm  el  Broviarium 

isliid  compoiii  voluisti,  jungo,  (lisjuiige,  ct 

accipe  ex  his  viginli(|iiatuor  Uteris  malu- 

tinain    cum    laudiljus.    primam,    tertiam, 

sextam,  nonam,  vesperas  el  coinplelorium; 

per  Chrislum  Dommum  noslrum.    Amen. 

Signal  se  dicens:    Sapienli  pauca. 

V.     In  pace  in  i(lipsum. 

H.     Dormiam  el  requiescam. 

Now,  my  qucslion.  Father  John,  is  as  to  the 
advisability  of  publishing  this  "comic"  breviary 
in  a  Catholic  journal.    What  do  you  think  of  it? 

Fr.John.  I  don't  admire  the  editor's  taste.  Of 
course,  the  skit  being  in  Latin,  he  may  have 
thought  that  only  the  clergy  would  understand 
and  enjoy  it;  but  I  doubt  very  much  that  even 
the  clergy  as  a  rule  found  it  worth  a  hearty 
laugh.  Possibly  I  am  old-fashioned,  but  I  dis- 
like humor  that  trenches  upon  the  irreverent, 
as  so  much  of  our  American  humor  does;  and 
I  certainly  wouldn't  care  to  translate  your  clip- 
ping for  a  lay  friend. 

Fr.  Hennessy.   What's  your  opinion,  Eversley  ? 

Mgr.  Eversley.  Pretty  much  the  same  as  Father 
John's.  The  skit  is  clever,  of  course,  but 
parodying  the  breviary  is  hardly  a  legitimate 
form  of  humor  for  Catholic  priests,  especially 
in  this  rather  irreverent  age. 

Dean  O'Reilly.  I'm  glad  you  added  that  last 
clause,  Eversley,  as  I  think  that  both  you  and 
Father  John  are  inclined  to  be  a  little  severe  on 
the  parody.  To  be  judged  with  anything  like 
fairness,  it  ought  to  be  considered  in  its  proper 
historic  setting.    Now,  as  I  understand  the  mat- 


282 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ter,  the  take-off  which  Hennessy  has  read  to  us 
is  a  survival  from  the  ages  of  faith.  In  fact,  I 
think  the  paper,  in  which  I  now  remember  see- 
ing it  a  year  or  so  ago,  mentioned  that  the 
parody  was  reproduced  from  a  Benedictine  re- 
view as  a  specimen  of  old-time  monkish  lit- 
erary recreations.  The  monks  of  old,  like  the 
Italian  peasants  oi  to-day,  in  their  childlike,  if 
robust,  faith,  sometimes  treated  God  and  the 
Madonna  with  a  freedom  which  would  jar  on 
the  susceptibilities  of  modern  American  clerics. 
Personally,  I  feel  quite  sure  that  the  parodist 
was  fundamentally  as  reverent  as  the  best  of  us, 
and  that  he  chanted  Matins  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning  with  a  whole-souled  devotion  that 
would  shame  a  gcod  many  present-day  reciters 
of  the  divine  office. 

Mgr.  Euersley.  Your  view  puts  the  matter  in  a  dif- 
ferent light.  Dean;  but  it  doesn't  excuse  the  bad 
judgment  of  the  editor  who  serves  up  the 
parody  to  twentieth-century  readers.  That,  I 
believe,  was  the  main  point  on  which  Father 
Hennessy  wanted  an  expression  of  opinion. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Yes;  although,  to  be  candid,  I  was 
inclined  to  censure  the  parodist  also.  O'Reilly's 
viewpoint,  however,  strikes  me  as  being  pretty 
sensible. 

Fr.  Lavers.  I  object  to  our  becoming  unduly  .sensi- 
ble on  a  club-night,  so,  before  this  meeting 
degenerates  into  a  critical  conversazione  or  a 
polemical  conference,  I  suggest  that  McGarrigle 
should  give  us  his  latest  comic  song.  Come  on, 
George,  I'll  play  your  accompaniment 


.'-JiajL 


A   CLERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


283 


Fr.  McGarrigle.  Absolutely  nothing  doing.  Tommy. 

I've  a  frog  in  my  throat.    Which  reminds  n-.r. 

by  obvious  connotation,  of  that  bit  of  lingo  you 

were  reciting  in  Galiigan's  room  the  other  day. 

Substitute  that  for  my  song. 
Fr.  John.     Lingo?     What  have  you  been  up  to 

now.  Tommy?    Isn't  your  own  language  crude 

enough  without  adding  jargon,  or  lingo,  to  your 

vocabulary? 
Fr.  Lavers.    Oh,  but  this  is  a  very  pathetic  bit. 

Father  John.    Get  out  your  handkerchief :  you'll 

need  it.    Listen ! 

A  frog  he  would  a-wooinpr  go, 
Sinf?  8or<r  poUy  witcha  ki  me  n, 
Whether  his  mother  would  let  him  or  no, 
Sinp  STiiiR  poUy  witcha  ki  me  o. 

Chorus. 
Kimo  care  haro  daro. 
Mehi  meho  marurapski  punidudle— 
Polly  witi'hem  nip  cat, 
Polly  witchem  soot  bafj. 
Sinp  song  poUy  witcha  ki  me  o. 

Gentlemen,  I  thank  you. 

Fr.Brawley.  Where,  in  the  name  of  common 
sense,  or  rather,  in  the  name  of  uncommon  non- 
sense, did  you  come  across  that  jingle,  Lavers? 

Fr.  Lavers.  An  American  drummer,  doing  duty  in 
a  French  ambulance  corps,  last  March,  gave 
that  string  of  rhymes,  instead  of  a  speech,  at  a 
dinner  to  the  boys  in  the  trenches  somewhere 
in  France. 

Fr.  brawley.  So  you  didn't  get  it  from  Henne8sy*8 
chauffeur,  Mike  Scullion.    It  sounds  a  good  d^al 


234 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I  i 


like  the  jargon  in  which  Mike  relieves  his  feel- 
ings nowadays  when  anything  goes  wrong  with 
the  auto.  I  fear  he  used  to  be  rather  profane. 
Anyway,  the  last  time  I  took  a  ride  with  Hen- 
nessy  one  of  the  tires  exploded,  and  Mike  fol- 
lowed suit  in  a  volley  something  like  this: 
"Rippity,  swippity,  dubbledee,  slap  bang  the 
jangitty,  whangitty  luck  to  sheol."  Hennessy 
says  that  isn't  swearing,  but  1  told  Mike  that  if 
he  wasn't  breaking  the  second  commandment, 
he  was  bending  it  pretty  strenuously. 

Fr.  Dempsey.  And  it's  an  auto,  no  less,  you  have 
now,  is  it.  Father  Ned?  Sure,  I  thought  that, 
after  the  laying-out  our  automobiling  clerics  got 
in  the  Sacerdotal  Monthly  some  time  ago,  not 
a  priest  in  the  country  would  be  seen  in  a  car, 
let  alone  own  one. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  What  laying-out?  I  heard  nothing 
about  it.  I  haven't  been  taking  the  Monthly 
for  the  past  year  or  two,  you  know. 

Fr.  Dempsey.  Well,  'tis  a  wonder  some  of  your 
friends  didn't  call  your  attention  to  the  indict- 
ment I'm  speaking  of;  it  would  have  interested 
you. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Look  here.  Dean ;  is  Father  Larry 
just  chaflRng?  Or  was  there  any  criticism  in  the 
Monthly  about  priests  and  the  automobile? 

Dean  O'Reilly.  Oh,  yes,  Father  Ned;  I  remember 
reading  several  communications  on  the  subject. 

Fr.  Hennessy.  Well,  what  was  the  gist  of  the  in- 
dictment, may  I  ask? 

Dean  O'Reilly.  As  I  recall  the  matter,  a  clerical 
correspondent  reported  the  views  of  a  holler- 


A   CLERICAL   CLUB-NIQHT 


235 


than-thou  lay  friend,  a  Catholic  traveling  man, 
who  was  scandalized  by  the  increasing  vogue 
of  the  motor-car  among  the  clergy.    This  offi- 
cious (and  possibly  supposititious)  layman  kept 
tab  on  all  priests  reported  in  the  press  as  being 
concerned  in  automobile  accidents,  or  arrested 
for  undue  speeding;  he  deplored  the  fact  that 
so  many  clerics  neglected  their  duties  to  go  joy- 
riding, sometimes  with  their  housekeepers,  Sis- 
ters;  or  other  female  friends;  and  he  was  espe- 
cially grieved  that  the  main  thing  our  semi- 
narians throughout  the  country  are  looking  for- 
ward to  is,  not  the  saving  of  souls  for  God,  but 
the  saving  of  shekels  to  buy  a  six-cylinder  car. 
Fr.Hennessy.    Nonsense,  man;  you  don't  mean  to 
tell  me  that  any  such  rot  as  that  appeared  in 
the  Monthly? 
Fr.Dempsey.    Indeed,  and  it  did  then— and  stuff 
still  more  extravagant.    For  instance,  the  cler- 
ical  correspondent   in   question   mentioned   a 
brother  priest,  a  "Father  Dan,"  if  I  remember 
well,  who  boasted  of  having  done  40,0()0  miles 
in  his  car  in  a  year. 
Fr.  Brawley.    Forty  thousand!    Say,  that's  "going 
some"  with  a  vengeance.    Let's  see — three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  into  forty   thousand  goes 
about  one  hundred  and  ten.    So,  this  mythical 
Father  Dan  actually  drove  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  a  day  on  an  average  right  through 
the  calendar  year  from  January  1st  to  Decem- 
ber 31st.    Why,  the  statement's  absurd  on  the 
face  of  it! 
Dean  O'Reilly.   Not  more  so  than  some  other  state- 


ii 


286 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ments  made  by  the  hypercritical  Catholic  drum- 
mer whom  the  correspondent  was  supposed  to 
be  quoting.  That  slur  on  our  seminarians,  for 
instance.  Does  any  sane  man  suppose  for  a 
moment  that  the  typical  American  aspirant  to 
Holy  Orders  is  animated  primarily  with  a  desire 
to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  wjrld? 

Mgr.  Eversley.  Any  sane  man;  no.  Dean.  But 
that's  just  the  trouble.  The  man  with  a  griev- 
ance is  not  sane  on  his  particular  grievance. 
He  seeks  out  the  most  extreme  possible  instance 
of  the  fault  he  is  condemning,  and  forthwith 
assumes  that  the  case  is  entirely  typical.  He 
knows  one  young  curate  who  has  just  got  a  car, 
and,  men  being  but  children  of  a  larger  growth, 
is  perhaps  overdoing  his  use  of  it;  and  he  jumps 
to  the  conclusion  that  all  priests  with  cars  are 
squandering  their  time  in  joy-riding.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  curate  will  most  probably  get 
over  his  initial  enthusiasm  for  motoring  within 
a  very  few  months;  but  his  critics  take  it  for 
granted  that  the  temporary  craze  is  a  settled, 
irreformable  habit. 

Fr.  McGarrigle.  By  the  way.  Father  John,  I  under- 
stand *hat  you  haven't  yet  invested  in  an  auto, 
and  consequently  can't  be  accused  of  being  a 
special  pleader  in  its  favor.  Won't  you  tell  us 
your  candid  opinion  on  the  subject? 

Fr.John.  I  don't  know  that  my  opinion  differs 
from  that  of  the  ordinary  man,  priest  or  lay- 
man, who  takes  a  common-sense  view  of 
present-day  conditions.  As  I  look  at  the  mat- 
ter, an  automobile  is  a  great  convenience,  not 


A   CliERICAL   CLUB-NIGHT 


237 


to  say  a  quasi-necessity,  to  a  good  many  priests, 
especially  those  who  have  country  parishes  with 
several  outlying  missions;  it  is  a  perfectly  legit- 
imate recreation  to  a  good  many  more  clerics 
who  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  take  more  ac- 
tive, healthful  exercise;  and  it  is  an  extravagant, 
time-wasting  fad  for  the  exceptional  few  (and 
generally  youthful)  priests  who  would  probably 
be  extravagant  and  time-wasting  in  other  ways 
if  there  were  no  such  things  as  motor-cars  in 
existence. 

Fr.  Lavers.  As  the  rube  congressman  said  in  his 
only  speech  during  the  session,  "Them's  my  sen- 
timents to  a  t."  The  auto  is  replacing  the  horse, 
and  a  priest  whose  work  m™  a  the  keeping  of 
a  horse  either  a  necessi  J  notable  con- 

venience ought  to  invest  i  «»r  as  soon  as  he 
can  afford  one. 

Fr.  Hogan.  Father  John's  reference  to  recreation 
and  exercise  suggests  a  question.  How  is  it 
that  some  of  our  clerical  friends  who  used  to 
deplore  iheir  lack  of  time  to  take  even  an  hour's 
walk  a  day  for  the  good  of  their  health  can  find, 
now  that  they  have  autos,  from  two  to  three 
hours  a  day  for  riding? 

Fr.  Dampsey.  That's  an  easy  one,  Tim.  It  wasn't 
time,  but  inclination,  they  lacked.  Even  for 
those  fellows,  however,  the  motor-car  is  a  bless- 
ing. They  get  some  fresh  air  nowadays,  any- 
way. Spinning  along  the  country  roads  at  the 
rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour  is  much  better 
than  lounging  around  the  house,  buaily  engaged 
in  doing  nothing. 


238 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Fr.  O'Connor.  What  about  the  advantage  of  hav- 
ing a  car  in  the  case  of  sick  calls? 

Mgr.  Eversley.  That  argument  for  the  priestly  au- 
tomobile may  be  easily  overstrained,  I  think. 
In  rural  parishes  or  small  villages,  it  has  of 
course  considerable  weight;  bitt  in  our  larger 
towns  and  our  cities  street-cars  and,  in  an  emer- 
gency, taxicabs,  furnish  as  speedy  a  method  of 
transportation  as  is  necessary.  The  priest  who 
didn't  keep  a  horse  before  he  purchased  his 
auto  will  hardly  stress  its  utiHty  with  regard 
to  sick  calls. 

Fr.  Brawley.  Well,  Father  John,  what  do  you 
think  of  the  priest-chaufTeur  phase  of  the  ques- 
tion? If  I  get  a  car,  as  1  hope  to  do  next  year, 
had  I  better  learn  to  run  it  myself,  or  get  my 
man-of-all-work  to  learn  how  to  do  so? 

Fr.  John.  If  I  were  you,  I'd  certainly  do  both.  Be 
your  own  chauffeur  when  you  have  to,  or  when 
you  find  it  convenient;  but  let  your  man  do  the 
driving  when  you  wish  to  give  a  ride  to  your 
housekeeper,  your  Sisters,  or  any  other  female 
friends.  And  don't  forget  that  the  obligation  to 
wear  the  Roman  collar  is  binding  even  on 
priest-chauffeurs.  And  now,  as  I  haven't  any 
auto,  and  don't  propose  to  use  the  street-cars 
tonight,  I  must  be  going  back  to  St.  Joseph's. 
I'll  look  for  you  to-morrow  or  next  day,  Jerry. 
Good  night,  boys. 

Fr.Dempsey.  Perhaps  we  may  as  well  adjourn. 
Yes?  Then  wait  a  minute,  Father  John,  and 
ni  walk  part  of  the  way  with  you. 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS 

BeligioD  clean  and  undefiled  before  Ood  and  the  Father,  is 
this:  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  tribulation:  and 
to  keep  one's  self  unspotted  from  the  world — St.  James:  i,  17. 

We  desire  that,  towards  the  end  of  their  education  in  the 
seminaries,  the  aspirants  to  the  priesthood  should  be  instructed, 
as  is  fitting,  in  the  pontifical  documents  which  deal  with  the  social 
question  and  with  the  Christian  democracy. — Leo  XIII. 

By  an  effectual  propaganda  of  writings,  by  stirring  oral  exhor- 
tations, and  by  direct  aid  let  the  priest  strive  to  ameliorate  within 
the  limits  of  justice  and  charity  the  economic  condition  of  the 
people,  favoring  and  furthering  those  institutions  that  tend  in 
that  direction,  especially  those  which  purpose  to  marshal  the  mul- 
titudes against  the  invading  domination  of  socialism,  and  which 
at  one  and  the  same  time  save  them  from  economic  ruin  and  moral 
and  religious  demoralization. — Piua  X. 

ALMOST  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian 
era  the  wisdom-dowered  writer  of  Ecclesi- 
astes  declared:  "Nothing  under  the  sun  is  new, 
neither  is  any  man  able  to  say:  Behold  this  is 
new:  for  it  hath  already  gone  before,  in  the  ages 
that  were  before  us."  Some  eight  centuries  later, 
in  the  prologue  of  Eunuchiis,  Terence  asserted: 
"In  fine,  nothing  is  said  now  that  has  not  been  said 
before."  And  a  nineteenth  century  versifier  gives 
expression  to  the  same  idea  in  tlie  quatrain, 

"Nothing  under  the  sun  is  new : 

The  old  was  old  in  Solomon's  day; 
The  false  was  false  and  the  true  was  true, 

As  the  false  and  the  true  will  be  alway." 


As  regards  essentials  and  fundamentals,  the  basic 
facts  of  religion  and  science,  and  the  innate  tenden- 

239 


240 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


cies  of  human  nature,  all  three  statements  are  no 
doubt  indisputable;  but  with  respect  to  non-essen- 
tials and  accidentals,  to  growth  and  development 
of  doctrines  and  bfliefs,  to  inventions  in  science 
and  discoveries  in  nature,  to  creations  and  com- 
binations in  arts  and  crafts,  and  to  the  multi- 
farious ways  in  which  concrete  humanity  is  wont 
to  express  itself,  Solomon's  "Nothing  under  the  sun 
is  new,"  is  as  far  from  the  literal  truth  as  would 
be  its  contrary,  "Everything  under  the  sun  is  new." 
The  title  of  the  present  chapter,  for  instance, 
suggests  at  once  to  a  middle-aged  or  an  elderly 
priest  a  variety  of  clerical  studies  and  pastoral 
activities  which,  in  their  present  form,  were  prac- 
tically non-existent  when  he  left  the  seminary  and 
began  the  work  of  the  parochial  ministry.    With 
regard  to  acquired  knowledge  congruous  to  cler- 
ics, it  is  rather  interesting  to  compare  the  views 
set  forth  in  standard  priestly  handbooks  published 
three  or  four  decades  ago  with  the  requirements 
demanded  by  accredited  ecclesiastical  authorities 
to-day.    In  one  such  handbook,  published  in  this 
country  in  1885,  we  read :    "What,  then,  is  a  priest 
bound  to  know  and  study  especially?    He  must 
study  especially  those  things  that  he  needs  most, 
to   wit:     Theology,   dogniatic   and   moral.   Holy 
Scripture,  the  principles  and  maxims  of  the  spir- 
itual life,  especially  if  he  has  the  guidance  of  re- 
ligious, whether  teachers  in  his  school  or  cloistered 
nuns.    He  must  also  study  Church  history,  liturgy, 
and  canon  law,  at  least  as  far  as  it  is  needed  in  this 
country."  ^    The  list  probably  impressed  most  of 

1  The  CathoUo  PriMthood,  by  the  B«v.  M.  MUU«r,  C.  SB.  R. 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    241 


its  readers  when  the  book  was  new  as  being  fairly 
exhaustive,  although  the  author  makes  no  mention 
of  economics,  sociology,  social  action,  social  ser- 
vice, or  the  like  terms  and  phrases. 

Another  clerical  volume,  published  in  Paris  in 
1888,  has  a  chapter  entitled  "What  Branches  of 
Knowledge  Should  a  Priest  Preferably  Study?" 
Deferring  the  discussion  of  Holy  Scripture  and 
theology  to  subsequent  chapters,  the  author  devotes 
a  paragraph  to  each  of  the  following  subjects: 
one's  mother  tongue,  Latin,  philosophy,  and  sacred 
eloquence;  an.-'  concludes  with  the  statement* 
"There  are  still  other  studies  very  worthy  of  a 
priest;  such  as  ecclesiastical  history,  canon  law, 
literature,  the  positive  sciences,  the  sciences  best 
known  in  Europe."  *  Here,  again,  we  note  the  ab- 
sence of  any  direct  reference  to  social  and  eco- 
nomic studies  as  being  quasi-essential  to  the  intel- 
lectual equipment  of  even  the  scholarly  cleric. 

Canon  Keatinge,  whose  well-known  book,  "The 
Priest:  His  Character  and  Work,"  was  published 
in  1903,  devotes,  his  fifth  chapter  to  "Study.  A 
Taste  for  Reading";  and  advocates  attention  to 
various  branches  besides  the  technical  studies 
mentioned  above;  but  he,  too,  pretermits  specific 
treatment  of  social  science  as  a  branch  of  knowl- 
edge scarcely  negligible  by  the  sacerdotal  student 
True,  in  a  later  chapter,  a  thoroughly  practical  and 
helpful  one  on  "Social  Work  and  Lay  Help,"  he 
expounds  a  doctrine  which  indicates  a  mastery  of 
that  science  gained  either  from  books  or  from  his 
experience  of  life  on  the  mission;  but  the  fact  re- 

»L9  Tritor  du  Prttra,  par  U  B.  P.  ICacb,  a  J. 
10 


1\ 


I 


242 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


mains  that  he  does  not  include  sociology  among 
the  studies  especially  pertinent  to  the  priesthood. 
With  1908  came  "The  Priest's  Studies,"  by  the 
late  Dr.  Scannell;  and  at  length  we  have  direct 
and  definite  reference  to  social  economics  as  a 
department  of  knowledge  thoroughly  congruous 
to  a  pastor  of  souls.    The  author  distinguishes  be- 
tween professional  and  extra-professional  studies. 
In  the  former  category  he  places  Holy  Scripture, 
dogmatic  moral,  and  ascetic  theology.  Church  his- 
tory, canon  law,  the  Liturgy  and  Church  music. 
Extra-professional  studies   he   discusses  in   four 
chapters;  one  each  on  History,  Science  (including 
Philosophy),  Art,  and  Literature.    In  a  subdivision 
of  the  chapter  on  the  second  of  these  subjects,  he 
writes :    "Under  this  head  of  Moral  Science,  taken 
in  a  wide  sense,  I  would  include  Political,  or  rather 
Social,  Economy.    The  day  has  gone  by  when  it 
could  be  dismissed  as  the  'dismal  science.'    This 
reproach  was  no  doubt  well  deserved  when  it  dealt 
with  that  fabled  monster,  the  'economic  man.'  Now 
that  flesh  and  blood  are  taken  into  account,  and 
economics  is  based  upon  human  nature  as  it  really 
is,  there  is  every  reason  why  we  priests  should 
study  it.    Leo  XIII  not  only  set  us  the  example, 
but  he  also  ordered  that  'social  theology'  should 
have  a  place  in  the  course  in  seminaries.     .     .     . 
The  priest  from  his  position  is  not  liable  to  the 
prejudices  of  either  the  capitalist  or  the  workman. 
He  can  therefore  enter  into  their  conflicts  with  an 
unbiased  mind.    But  the  first  requisite  is  that  he 
should  make  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject." 
The  movement  to  which,  if  he  did  not  actually 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    243 

originate  it,  Leo  XIII  gave  a  vigorous  impetus,  has 
in  still  more  recent  years  acquired  such  momentum 
that  we  find  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Keating,  Rishop  of 
Northampton,  writing,  in  his  introduction  to  "The 
Priest  and  Social  Action,"  by  Father  Charles 
Plater,  S.  J.  (1914),  this  downright  paragraph: 
"The  object  of  this  book  is  to  convince  English 
priests  that,  under  our  actual  circumstances,  social 
action  is  no  longer  merely  a  matter  of  taste — an 
interest  which  can  be  taken  up  or  laid  aside  at 
choice.  Social  action  has  become  an  indispensable 
phase  of  our  apostolate.  For  proof,  it  is  enough 
to  refer  to  the  remarkable  series  of  official  pro- 
nouncements emanating  in  recent  years  from  the 
Holy  See  and  the  Episcopate  throughout  the 
world." 

To  make  an  end  of  these  quotations,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  bring  them  thoroughly  up  to  date, 
let  there  be  cited  this  paragraph  from  The  Media- 
tor (September,  1917).  Speaking  of  a  pastor's 
relations  with  his  flock,  the  author.  Father  Geier- 
mann,  C.  SS.  R.,  has  this  to  say:  "He  can  identify 
himself  intimately  with  them  and  find  both  recrea- 
tion and  an  incentive  to  study  by  developing  a 
hobby  that  will  prove  beneficial  to  their  material 
interests.  Thus,  a  rural  pastor  will  rise  in  the 
esteem  and  affection  of  his  people  in  proportion 
as  he  takes  an  interest  in  their  material  affairs, 
and,  in  addition  to  ministering  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  all,  is  able  to  make  helpful  suggestions  to 
improve  the  material  conditions  of  his  less  pro- 
gressive parishioners.  And  a  city  pastor  who 
proves  himself  an  expert  on  sociological  questions 


,  II 


244 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


will  preach  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  a  more 
sympathetic  congregation  than  another  who  is  not 
in  touch  with  his  people,  because  he  neglects  to 
study  the  difficulties  that  constitute  the  burden  of 
th^ir  daily  life." 

The  foregoing  summary  review  of  the  different 
groups  of  studies  recommended  to  the  clergy  by 
successive  authors  during  the  past  three  decades 
is  so  far  interesting  that  it  shows  a  steady  advance 
in  the  attention  given  to  sociological  matters  as  fit 
subjects  for  priestly  inquiry  and  meditation,  and 
irresistibly  suggests  that  within  the  next  quarter 
of  a  century  the  "social  theology"  advocated  by 
Leo  XIII  will  have  its  definitely  assigned  place  in 
the  curricula  of  all  American  seminaries.  That 
such  a  place  has  already  indeed  been  given  to  it 
in  a  number  of  our  seminaries  is  clear  from  the 
published  reports  of  the  proceedings  at  the  annual 
meetings  of  our  Catholic  Educational  Association. 
Even  in  1908,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ryan  was  able  to  speak, 
at  such  a  meeting  in  Cincinnati,  of  his  six  years' 
experience  in  teaching  Economic  History  and  Po- 
litical Economy  in  the  provincial  seminary  of  St. 
Paul.  At  the  same  mooting  the  Rev,  Dr.  Kerby 
pleaded  for  the  general  instruction  and  training 
of  sominarinns  in  such  matfors  as  "principlos  of 
social  invostigntinn.  questions  of  method,  of  ob- 
servation, classification,  and  intcrprolation  of 
social  facts;  information  on  the  naliiro.  constitu- 
tion, and  content  of  movements  like  socialism, 
labor  unions,  reform  legislation;  and  the  discus- 
sion of  methods  and  problems  of  charity." 

It  would  appear  indeed  that  our  young  Amer- 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    246 


ican  aspirants  to  the  priesthood  are  henceforth  to 
be  as  solidly  grounded  in  the  various  branches  of 
social  science  as  are  their  transatlantic  brethren  in 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  and  England.  In 
no  fewer  than  forty-five  French  seminaries  regular 
courses  in  social  study  had  been  definitely  organ- 
ized before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war.  This 
exceptional  attention  giver  to  the  study  is  largely 
due,  no  doubt,  to  the  instructions  issued  by  Pius  X 
to  the  French  bishops  in  his  important  letter  on 
the  famous  Sillon.  In  that  document  he  not  only 
approved  of  priests'  acquiring  a  general  knowledge 
of  social  subjects  but  ordered  the  French  Hier- 
archy to  see  to  it  that  they  should  have  among  their 
clerg}'  social  specialists,  trained  experts  in  social 
science.  Expressing  his  earnest  desire  that  the 
bishops  should  take  an  active  part  in  the  genuinely 
Christian  organization  of  society,  he  added :  "And 
to  this  end,  whilst  your  priests  will  devote  them- 
selves with  ardor  to  the  work  of  the  sanctification 
of  souls,  the  defense  of  the  Church,  and  to  works 
of  charitj'  properly  so  called,  you  will  choose  some 
of  them  who  are  active  and  of  studious  disposition, 
who  possess  the  degree  of  doctor  in  philosophy  and 
theology,  and  who  are  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  ancient  and  modem  civilization,  and 
you  will  set  them  to  the  study,  less  elevated  but 
more  practical,  of  social  science,  so  that  you  can 
place  them  at  the  proper  time  in  charge  of  your 
Catholic  social  movement."  While  specifically 
addressed  to  the  French  episcopate,  this  pontifical 
recommendation  is  obviously  of  world-wide  appli- 
cation, and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  being  attended 


246 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


to  by  Ihe  bishops  of  many  countries,  our  own 
included. 

So  much  for  the  priests  of  the  immediate  fu- 
ture, and  even  for  many  young  priests  of  to-day: 
they  are  likely  to  be  possessed  of  considerable  sys- 
tematized    knowledge     of     the     various     social 
problems  with  which  they  will  inevitably  be  con- 
fronted, both  as  pastors  of  souls  and  as  citizens 
of  acknowledged  standing  and  prestige.    What  of 
the  middle-aged  or  elderly  clerics  who,  Solomon's 
dictum  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  find  that 
all  this  talk  and  discussion  about  social  study  and 
social  action  reveal  something  unmistakably  new 
in  the  concept  of  congruous  priestly  reading  and 
laudable  pastoral  activities?    Are  they,  in  order  to 
keep  abreast  of  the  times,  to  hark  back  to  the 
practices  of  their  student  days  and  pore  over  text- 
books with  which  as  seminarians-  ihey  were  unac- 
quainted?  Must  they  forthwith  set  about  acquiring 
a  not  inconsiderable  fund  of  information  concern- 
ing socialism  in  its  various  forms,  capitalism,  the 
rights  cf  iabor,  the  minimum  and  the  living  wage, 
trade   unionism,   strikes   and   lockouts,   woman's 
rights  and  Christian  feminism,  the  housing  prob- 
lem and  overcrowded  slums,  syndicalism,  sweat- 
ing, eugenics,  emigration  and  immigration,  pre- 
ventable poverty,  cooperative  stores,  tuberculosis 
camps,    organized    charities,   prison    reform,    the 
sterilization  of  degenerate  criminals,  the  care  of 
the  deaf  and  the  treatment  of  the  feeble-minded, 
the  comparative  force  of  heredity  and  environ- 
ment,   Sunday   observance,    public    playgrounds, 
summer  schools  and  reading  circles,  clubs  and  in- 


THE  P  JEST  AND  SOCLVL  PROHLRMs    247 


to  promote  the 
entrusted  to  his 
any  active  work 
formance  of  hi^ 


stitutes  for  the  young  of  both  sexts,  re'  eats  U  r 
laymen,  and  a  host  of  other  speriflc  topics? 
Assuredly  not,  and  for  a  variety  ol  rciisoi  ^. 

In  the  first  place,  active  part  ipalion  -,n  socia; 
work,  and  hence  the  knov  tedgc  t  nsenti  'o  su-h 
participation,  is  after  ill  on!  a  s  .•(md.ry.  .hi  h 
a  real,  duty  of  the  priest.  H-  primary-  and  e^  eii 
tial  duty  remains,  even  in  this  socializ^'d  twent  eth 
century,  the  sanctification  of  his  par  hioncrs'  ils, 
the  perfectioning  of  thrir  spiritual  r.      or  th  >ir 

bodily  well-being.  His  social  icf  on  is  in  -  im- 
mendable  and  justitiab  .^  onlv  in  so  far  ;  'nds 

spiri  !nl  interests  of  th  flock 
targe.  \iiy  study,  therefore,  or 
hat  '  rfere«  wit  the  f  jU  per- 
pur(  .act  dotai  sninistrations 
may  well  be  lo' k(  d  upo  as  negligible,  not  '  bliga- 
tory. 

In  the  secon<"  place,  it  '  altogCih*  r  bable 
that  a  considera  'e  numboi  o  middit  jed  and 
elderly  priests  ali  ady  know  much  more  about  a 
good  many  of  the  subject  nentioned  in  the  fore- 
^ling  paragraph  than  the  are  generally  credited 
with  knowing  bv    he  w<     ,i  at  large,  or,  possibly, 

1  ext-books  constitute  one 

)t        excellent  one,  for  the  ac- 

conceming  any  science; 

illy  means.    One's  general 

e's  familiarity  with  the  cur- 

nagazines  and  the  discus- 

in  the  daily  press,  one's 

ctures  on  questions  of  the  day,  and 

itions  with  specialists  or  with  the 


eveo   bv    then  sci 
means,  and  n*    d( 
^uisition   of  k 
l>ut  the      ire  no; 
and  s       }.    readii 
ent  .    -ra^   »■    of  i 
ajon  Ol    !'  topi 

a«eiiida 
one' 


248 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ordinary  man  in  the  street— all  these  are  positive 
and  not  ineflf active  means  of  storing  the  mind  with 
worth-while  information  about  social  problems,  as 
about  many  other  matters  having  to  do  with  con- 
crete humanity.    A  priest's  reading  on  social  topics 
is,  moreover,  far  more  likely  to  be  instructive  or 
educative  than  is  similar  reading  on  the  part  of 
laymen,  because  of  the  philosophic  and  theological 
training  to  which  in  his  youthful  manhood  he  was 
subjected  in  the  seminary.    The  ethical  and  moral 
principles  underlying  all  social  action  appeal  to 
him  more  immediately,  and  he  more  readily  de- 
tects and  dissents  from  fallacious  theories.    Added 
to  this  is  the  personal  contact  of  the  pastor  with 
concrete  examples  of  no  small  number  of  these 
social  problems,  each  of  which  has  given  him  food 
for  anxious  thought,  for  specific  study,  and  for  con- 
sultation with  friends  of  wider  experience  than  his 
own. 

If,  then,  there  are  relatively  few  middle-aged 
priests  who,  in  the  realm  of  sociology,  know  every- 
thing about  something  and  sometiiing  about  every- 
thing, there  are  probably  still  fewer  who  know 
nothing  about  most  things  and  very  litUe  about 
anything:    the   great  majority   know  something 
about  most  things  and  a  good  deal  about  some 
things.   And  this  much  is  sufficient  for  the  average 
priest.    Neither  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs  who  have 
counseled  social  action  on  the  part  of  the  clergy, 
nor  the  bishops  of  different  countries  who  have' 
been  most  active  in  seconding  the  desires  of  the 
Holy  See,  nor  the  most  eloquent  pleaders  for  cler- 
ical  social  service  in  our  own  land,  have  had  in 


THE  PEIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    249 


view  the  transformation  of  the  ordinary  pastor  into 
a  sociologic  specialist.  Pius  X's  letter  to  the  French 
bishops,  advising  the  setting  apart  of  some  of  their 
priests  for  expert  training  in  social  science,  indi- 
cates the  real  desideratum,  and  the  only  one  that  is 
practically  attainable.  A  diocese,  several  of  whk  <e 
priests  are  competent  to  speak  and  write  authori- 
tatively on  the  multitudinous  topics  of  social  eeop. 
omy,  and  the  remainder  of  whose  clerics  are  fairly 
well  informed  as  to  such  topics,  may  be  considered 
passably  equipped  for  the  solution  of  the  compara- 
tively new  problems  with  which  present-day  con- 
ditions confront  the  clergy. 

It  goes  without  saying,  of  course,  that  while  the 
ordinary  pastor  is  not  at  all  bound  to  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  social  science  as  a  whole, 
or  of  any  particular  branch  thereof,  still,  the  more 
he  knows  about  the  larger  aspects  of  sociology,  and 
the  more  intelligently  he  can  discuss  the  particular 
social  and  industrial  questions  with  which  he  is 
brought  into  personal  contact,  the  greater  will  be 
the  prestige  which  he  enjoys  among  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  the  more  potent  the  influence  which 
he  exerts  in  behalf  of  such  of  his  parishioners  as 
have  need  of  his  material  as  well  as  his  spiritual 
help.  A  year  or  two  ago  the  present  writer  heard 
a  retreat-master  very  frankly  inform  several  hun- 
dred diocesan  priests  that  the  imperfect  knowledge 
of  capital  and  labor  evinced  by  the  average  pastor, 
and  the  resultant  failure  of  such  pastor  to  cham- 
pion the  righteous  cause  of  the  workingman,  was  a 
serious  detriment  to  the  priest's  efficiency  as  a 
father  of  souls.    On  that  specific  question,  indeed, 


il 


'•iil 


I 

3 


I 


250 


^50     SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


no  intelligent  priest  of  our  day  should  be  unable  to 
speak  with  convincing  explicitness  and  authority. 
Dunng  the  quarter  of  a  century  that  has  elapsed 
since  the  pubhcaUon  of  Leo  XIII's  epoch-making 
Encyclical  Rerum  Novarum,  or  "The  CondiUon  of 
the  Working  Classes,"  as  it  is  called  in  the  London 
Cathohc  Truth  Society's  excellent  translation  of 
the  document,  the  respective  rights  and  duties  of 

^,??m"  !/?  ^^^"""^  ^^""^  **^^"  «°  often  and  so  thor- 
oughly  discussed  in  papal  and  episcopal  pro- 
nouncements, in  ecclesiastical  reviews,  and  in 
ordinary  Catholic  magazines  and  weekly  papers 

clenc  must,  it  would  seem,  have  acquired  a  com- 
prehensive grasp  of  the  whole  subject. 

Not  only  in   theoretical   knowledge  of  social 
economy  but  in  the  practical  application  of  tha 
knowledge  to  local  needs  and  individual  cases,  the 
average  pastor  is  perhaps  better  equipped  than  is 
generally  supposed  to  be  the  case     As  a  doer  of 
deeds  of  chanty,  an  expert  in  charitable  action,  in 
the  more  restricted  sense  of  that  phrase,  the  Ame" 
lean  priest,  like  his  brother-clerics  the  ;orld  oTer 
has  always  of  course  been  known  and  loved  by  the 
poorer  members  of  his  flock;  but  his  achievements 
even  in  social  action  have  been,  and  are,Ty  no 
means  inconsiderable.   The  outstanding  distinction 
between  charitable  and  social  action  if  that  whTle 
the  former  aims  principally  at  relieving  poverty 
sickness,  misery  of  all  kinds,  the  latter  is  chie^; 
concerned  with  the  task  of  preventing  these  mil 
fortunes.   Now,  it  is  evident  that  in  the  sphere  of  a 
pastor's  specific  work  for  the  betterment  of  his 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    251 


flock's  material  condition  both  sorts  of  action  will 
often  be  combined,  will  blend  and  merge  one  into 
the  other.  Taking  into  consideration  the  eminently 
practical  character  of  the  typical  American  cleric, 
it  is  indeed  probable  that  a  pastor's  charitable  work 
is  habitually  accompanied  with  activities  distinctly 
social.  Just  as  Moliere's  M.  Jourdain  learned  with 
astonishment  that  he  had  been,  without  knowing 
it,  talking  prose  all  his  life,  so,  we  take  it,  would 
not  a  few  priests  be  surprised  to  learn  that  they 
have  been  throughout  their  pastoral  career  not 
merely  charitable  nr  ^i  but  effective  social  agents, 
excellent  helpers  who  have  applied  to  the  definite 
problems  existing  in  their  parishes  the  most  ap- 
proved principles  and  methods  of  twentieth-cen- 
tury- social  action. 

It  may  be  worth  while,  before  going  further,  to 
say  a  word  about  a  certain  prejudice  against  sys- 
tematic, scientific,  ruled  and  weighed  and  meas- 
ured re'ief  given  to  the  unfortunate  r.  r,  as 
opposed  to  the  spontaneous  offerings  of  ''n  rous 
and  warm-hearted  private  individuals.  ^  is  a 
prejudice  not  confined  to  the  laity,  and  not  always 
easy  to  overcome  even  in  the  case  of  logical  and 
thoughtful  clerics.  We  are  all  perhaps  inclined  to 
sympathize,  subconsciously  at  least,  with  Boyle 
O'Reilly's  fling  at 

The  organized  charity,  scrimped  and  iced 
In  the  name  of  a  cautious,  statistical  Christ, 

even  while  we  acknowledge  the  superiority  of  well- 
ordered  and  methodical  relief  over  impulsive  and 


■J  i  -'I 


iM 


t'JT. 


252 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


1 


I 


tl        I 


indiscriminate  giving.    In  particular  cases  the  head 
not  infrequently  yields  to  the  heart,  reason  to  feel- 
ing.   The  typical  tramp  who  tells  us  a  pathetic  tale 
of  being  unable  to  get  a  job,  and.  parenthetically 
remarking  that  he  hasn't  had  a  bite  to  eat  for  two 
full  days,  begs  for  a  quarter  with  which  to  pur- 
chase a  meal,  is  very  probably  lying,  and  doubtless 
intends  to  invest  the  wished-for  coin,  if  he  gets  it, 
m  whiskey  or  beer;  but,  notwithstanding  the  nu- 
merous lessons  taught  us  by  experience,  we  are 
prone  to  fell  ourselves  that  'tis  better  to  be  cheated 
by  a  score  of  mendacious  rogues  than  to  allow  a 
possibly  truthful  fellow-mortal  to  go  hungry— and 
we  hand  out  the  money.    From  one  point  of  view 
our  act  is  a  corporal  work  of  mercy;  from  another.' 
the  social-action  as  dilFerentiated  from  the  Chris- 
tian-charity viewpoint,  it  is  a  reprehensible  en- 
couragement of  dishonesty  and  thriftless  vagrancy 
With  increasing  years   and   more   thoughtful 
study  of  the  world  around  us,  we  shall  probably 
learn  how  to  relieve  genuine  distress  among  the 
deserving  without  constructively   promoting  the 
increase   in   numbers  of   the   undeserving      Our 
chanty  towards  the  tramp  mentioned  above,  for 
instance  would  be,  subjectively,  fullv  as  meritori- 
ous-and,  objectively,  a  good  deal  more  prudent— 
If,  instead  of  giving  him  the  price  of  a  meal,  we 
gave  him  our  signed  order  for  such  a  meal  in  a 
cheap  restaurant  or  boarding-house.     May  it  not 
be  the  additional  trouble  occasioned  by  this  latter 
plan  that  prevents  our  adopting  it?  *  If  so,  our 
charit>'  is  not  really  so  laudable  as  we  may  like  to 
consider  it. 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    253 


It  need  hardly  be  said  that,  if  many  of  the  com- 
fortable and  well-to-do  cherish  a  more  or  less 
unreasonable  prejudice  against  organized  chari- 
ties, a  still  larger  number  of  the  beneficiaries  of 
such  charities  look  upon  them  with  instinctive  dis- 
like, not  to  say  positive  repugnance.  Sturdy  old 
Betty  Higdon,  in  Dickens'  "Our  Mutual  Friend,"  is 
a  type  not  at  all  uncommon  even  in  our  own  day 
of  social  conditions  notably  improved  in  many 
respects  since  the  middle-nineteenth  century.  Her 
horror  of  lapsing  into  a  state  in  which  she  would 
"come  on  the  parish,"  to  be  committed  to  the  poor- 
house  as  a  permanent  lodger,  or  even  a  "casual," 
finds  its  counterpart  in  the  sentiments  of  many  of 
our  own  poor  and  unfortunate,     ".  Then  I 

get  numbed,"  explained  Betty  to  her  friend, 
"thouaht  and  senses,  till  I  start  out  of  my  seat, 
afcard  that  I'm  a  growing  like  the  poor  old  people 
that  they  brick  up  in  the  Unions,  as  you  may  some- 
times see  when  tliry  let  >m  out  of  the  four  walls  to 
have  a  warm  in  the  sun,  crawling  quite  scared 
about  the  streets.  .  .  .  Trn<l<«ing  round  the 
country  and  tirino  of  myself  »  it.  I  sliall  keep  llic 
deadness  off.  and  trit  my  own  hw  \<\  liy  my  own 
labor.  And  wlint  more  c;ui  I  w.mt?"  Dickons 
satirizes  in  his  own  cfff-tivc  "-hi,,  j},,.  cciiisliiulcd 
authorities'  <  xnao*  mffd  con*!.!)  ntl'i  n  of  the  old 
woman's  ind-pcndonce:  but  hi«  HrHv  lli-jdon  re- 
mains a  concrete  excmplificni'on  of  a  Inilh  thus 
phrased  by  Southey:  "Tlmf  c'mrilv  is  b:ul  whicii 
takes  from  independence  its  proper  pride,  and 
from  mendicity  its  proper  shame  " 

To  the  great  mass  of  the  unfortunate  poor  the 


1*41 


254 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


«nH  i  **«Pe°dence  is  more  bitter  than  sweet; 
and  this  very  fact  furnishes  a  potent  incenUve  to 
the  social  achon  which  tries  to  prevent  poverty 
and  misery  by  removing  their  causes  in  as  far  as 
IS  practicable.    Supporting  a  desUtute  family  is  no 

nL*      /   t^^  *°  ^"PP**^*  themselves  is  both  en- 
lightened   charity   and   a   distinct  social   benefit 

forTblindT  ''"'  °'  -nunerative  occupation 
securing  h^  ""'•  ^  '"PP^"  ''  ^«^  preferable  to 

secunng  his  recognition  by  the  Associated  Chari- 

1  I  I  V""/'^''  organization,  as  a  "case"  to  be 
looked  after  in  accordance  with  the  most  up-to' 
date  scientific  formulas  for  "ameliorating  the  lot 
of  Uie  deserving  poor."    The  average  pasfor  finds 

ft^  n.l''  T'.'^^?  '"^  ^'^P^"''^"^  Christian  char- 
ity pure  and  simple;  but  he  can  also  readily  dis- 
cover mu  tiplied  opportunities  for  supplementing 
such  charity  by  effective  service  in  impro^g  hf 
social  efficiency  of  the  more  necessitous  of  hiS 

A  priest's  social  work  is  necessarily  conditioned 
by  his  environment.  The  kind  of  parish  in  which 
he  ^stationed  and  the  activities-^ommerciri  in 

eZIaf^  ««r,r'*"''"^'  ^*^ -'"  ^hi<=h  his  people  are 
engaged  will  naturally  determine  the  particular 
beneficent  enterprises  to  which  he  lends  Ws 
encouragement  and  his  personal  service.  In  our 
American  cities  and  our  larger  towns,  the  ord"na^ 
pastor  IS  perhaps  less  called  upon  fo^  active  exe^ 
tionm  promoting  organized  social  action  than  is 
his  brother-priest  in  the  small  town,  the  village  o' 
the  rural  parish;  because  in  the  more  popSius 


iV'^^mm 


&  mm  •tT'^.'wmd 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PBOBLEMS    255 

centres  special  priests  witli  special  knowledge  and 
fitness  may  be,  and  quite  commonly  are.  assigned 
by  their  ordinaries  to  particular  works;  whereas 
m  the  smaller  communities  the  pastor  himself 
must  supply  the  place  of  the  trained  social  expert 
On  the  other  hand,  the  village  or  the  rural  parish 
does  not  ordinarily  present  so  many  or  so  compli- 
cated  problems  as  do  the  larger  centres;  and  its 
pastor  as  a  rule  has  both  more  time  to  devote  to 
the  study  of  the  conditions  surrounding  him.  and  a 
ireer  hand  m  organizing  and  promoting  the  definite 
works  best  suited  to  such  conditions. 

OrganizaUon  and  promotion,  be  it  said  inci- 
dentally,  comprise  the  main  duties  of  the  pastor 
who  mterests  himself  in  these  social  activiUes 
whether  in  city  or  village,  in  town  or  country.  As 
Father  Plater  points  out:  "It  is  now  no  longer 
possibl  i-if  ,t  ever  was-for  the  priest,  personally 
and  nnaidea,  to  relieve  the  poverty  of  a  parish 

J'T  J°''J?^^'*'^'  "'^"^«^  **^^  ^^"b«'  ^eep  working 
lads  faithful  to  their  religious  duties,  fight  the  bat- 
tle of  religious  education,  promote  the  Catholic 
press,  organize  recreations,  combat  intemperance 
and  carry  on  the  other  hundred  works  which  more 
or  less  directly  concern  the  salvation  of  souls  No 
matter  how  great  the  priest's  zeal  or  how  unflag- 
ging his  energy,  he  will  find  it  impossible  in  these 
days  to  do  by  himself  a  tithe  of  the  work  that  must 
be  done." 

If  the  work  must  be  done,  and  the  priest  by 
himself  is  incapable  of  doing  it,  the  assistance  of 
the  laity  IS  obviously  indispensable.  And  that  as- 
sistance, it  is  gratifying  to  note,  is  more  available 


256 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


at  present,  is  given  with  greater  cheerfulness  and  in 
larger  measure  in  this  twentieth  century  than  in 
any  previous  period  of  the  world's  history  since 
the  days  specifically  designated  "the  ages  of  faith." 
The  "lay  apostolate"  is  in  our  day  no  mere  empty 
phrase  but  a  name  corresponding  to  a  living  and 
energetic  entity  that  is  accomplishing  great  things 
for  the  glory  of  God,  the  interests  of  the  Church, 
and  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  material  well-being 
of    the    Church's    children.     Catholic    men    and 
women  m  all  classes  of  society  are  realizing  that 
the  slogan  "the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man"  is,  after  all,  only  a  restatement  of 
the  two  great  commandments:    "Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord,  thy  God,  above  all    .     .     .     and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself";  and  they  are  seeing  to  it  that 
m  word  and  work  they  yield  unquestioning  obedi- 
ence to  both.    Recognizing  that  outside  the  pale  of 
the  Church  the  first  of  these  commandments  is 
bemg  progressively  minimized   where  it   is  not 
entirely  ignored,  that  the  fatherhood  of  God  i^ 
bemg  overshadowed,  not  to  say  eclipsed,  by  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  our  Catholic  laity  are  will- 
ingly proffering  their  help  to  the  clergy  in  giving 
concrete  expression  to  the  intimate  union  of  both 
Ideas,  m  showing  themselves  true  brothers  of  their 
fellowmen  while  remaining  true  children  of  their 
Heavenly  Father. 

Just  how  effectively  this  lay  help  may  be  util- 
ized  m  a  given  parish  will  depend  very  much  on 
the  personality  of  its  pastor,  the  sum  total  of  his 
qualities  and  endowments.  A  buoyant  tempera- 
ment and  a  ;vinning  address  are  assets  scarcely 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    257 


!!ll  ^!i"  .  ^  ''""'^  ^^'''^^  *'»«»  «*•«  wide  knowl- 
spirituality  and  humanness  which  so  often  results 

wZ!'Xf'\"'''^^''l^  "^  P^'*'*""^*  niagneUsm  that 
irresis  ibly  draws  him  to  the  young  men  of  his 
flock  ,s  a  peculiarly  valuable  external  grace  for 
which  a  priest  may  well  be  especially  thankful. 

var  n.  ^        T  'T^'*  "^  "»^^^  >'"""«  "»^n  i"  his 

ZT'  '°''''  .r'^"'  "  P"^*«^  '^  ^«^«  to  achieve 
results  eminently  worth  while.    Lacking  such  sup- 
port, a  measurable  amount  of  commendable,  not 
to  say  necessarj'.  work  will  assuredly  be  left  un- 
done.   Not  all  priests  possess  this  personal  mag- 
netism  and  those  who  are  without  it  must  do  the 
best  they  can  to  supply  its  place  by  additional 
vork-and  prayer.    All  priests,  however,  can,  if 
they  will,  avoid  in  their  relations  wilb  their  lav 
helpers,  be  these  \dpers  young  or  old,  men  or 
women,  one  capitai  .ault— the  domineering  spirit 
the  tendency  to  plaj  the  role  of  dictator  or  auto- 
crat the  obvious  desire  to  be  what  has  been  inele- 
gantly,  if  expressively,  called  "the  whole  push  " 
Ihe  records  of  many  a  parish  throughout  this 
country  are  the  graveyards  of  scores  of  societies 
done  to  death  by  the  despotic  officiousness  of  well- 
meaning  priests  who  were  consumed  with  a  zeal 
not  according  to  knowledge. 

While  the  scope  of  this  chapter  doe'?  not  admit 
of  any  detailed  descripUon  of  the  multifarious 
works  in  which  the  social  action  of  the  priest 
may  display  itself,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  remark 
that  the  religious  societies  to  be  found  in  all  well- 
organized  parishes  can  be  uUlized  for  social  serv- 


17 


eiiAs. 


258 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ice  of  various  kinds.  A  present-day  specialist  in 
the  work  of  the  laity,  Father  Garesche,  S.  J.,  enu- 
merates, for  instance,  the  following  activities  of 
committees  in  certain  sodalities :  "They  are  mak- 
ing a  survey  of  the  parish,  organizing  parish  wel- 
fare sections,  helping  the  poor  and  the  sick,  dis- 
tributing Catholic  literature,  assisting  the  missions, 
teaching  Catechism,  looking  after  friendless  boys 
and  girls,  promoting  sociability  among  Catholics, 
aiding  the  parish  schools,  and  in  many  other  ways 
acting  as  a  zealous  lay  auxiliary  to  their  pastors." 
An  energetic  pastor  who  has  in  his  parish  a  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  Conference  or  a  Holy  Name  So- 
ciety should,  it  would  seem,  be  able  similarly  to 
widen  the  service  of  such  an  organization  beyond 
the  specific  purpose  for  which  it  was  established. 
Young  men's  institutes  can  readily  be  utilized  for 
other  work  than  the  primary  one  of  promoting  the 
moral  and  physical  well-being  of  the  members — 
utilized,  for  instance,  in  efficiently  aiding  the 
pastor  in  his  solution  of  the  ofttimes  arduous  boy- 
problem.  And  so  with  other  existing  societies, 
clubs,  circles,  or  guilds :  each  of  them,  with  no  det- 
riment to  its  particular  aim,  may  be  made  service- 
able in  one  or  another  department  ot  the  Catholic 
lay  apostolate. 

To  sum  up :  an  exemplary  priest  of  the  present 
day  can  not  well  afford  to  ignore  either  the  theory 
or  the  practice  of  social  action.  While  such  action 
is  only  secondary  or  supplementary  to  his  spiritual 
ministrations,  it  is  often  so  bound  up  with  the  re- 
ligious welfare  of  his  people  that  to  neglect  it  may 
easily  be  tantamount  to  a  dereliction  of  pastoral 


THE  PRIEST  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS    259 


duty,  riie  general  knowledge  of  social  science 
which  he  has  casually  acquired  may  commendably 
be  increased  by  his  reading  such  works  as  deal 
with  the  particular  social  problems  existent  in  his 
parish;  and  the  incidental  social  work  which  he 
liabitually  performs  in  attending  to  his  parish- 
ioners may  laudably  be  augmented  by  definitely 
organized  social  service.  Priestly  zciil  will  lead 
him  to  avail  himself  of  the  help  of  the  laity,  and 
common  sense  will  prevent  his  alienating  such 
help  by  underrating  its  importance,  checking  its 
initiative,  or  obscuring  its  merit.  "It  is  a  great 
art,"  says  Father  Vermeersch  on  this  point,  "an  art 
which  requires  self-effacement— not  to  be  too  much 
in  evidence,  but  to  encourage  the  initiative  of 
others;  to  suggest  useful  proposals,  and  let  others 
have  the  credit  of  their  results." 


H 


■-'  II 


a 


THE  PRIEST  AS  TRAVELLER 

The  travelled  mind  is  the  catholic  mind,  educated  out  of  ez-'lu- 
■ivenen  and  egotiam. — A.  B.  Aloott. 

The  world  is  a  great  book,  of  which  thej  who  nerer  itir  from 
home  read  onl/  a  page.— iSt.  Augustine. 

...  In  journeying!  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in  perils 
of  robbers,  in  perils  from  mj  own  nation,  in  perils  from  the  gen- 
tiles, in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils  in 
the  sea. — t  Cor. :  tl,  t6. 


THE  thoughtful  reader  of  the  new  Codex  of 
Canon  Law  us  a  whole,  or  of  any  notable  por- 
tion thereof,  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  admir- 
able sanity,  the  common-sense  judiciousness,  and 
the  forthright  practicality  evidenced  in  its  various 
provisions.  Nowhere  else  in  the  Code,  perhaps, 
are  these  qualities  more  conspicuous  than  in  the 
division  which,  quite  naturally,  proves  especially 
interesting  to  priests,  book  second,  "De  Personis." 
And  not  the  least  admirable  of  the  regulations  set 
forth  in  this  second  book  is  canon  465,  in  virtue  of 
which  pastors  are  allowed  to  take  an  annual  vaca- 
tion of  two  mo^iths,  either  continuous  or  inter- 
rupted, a  privilege  restricted  only  by  the  wise  pro- 
vision that,  when  a  pastor  desires  to  .go  away  for 
more  than  a  week,  he  must  secure  the  acquiescence 
of  his  Ordinary  and  provide  an  approved  priest 
for  the  care  of  his  parish.  It  may  not  be  necessary, 
but  neither  is  it  impertinent,  to  add  that  to  this 
particular  canon,  not  less  than  to  any  and  all  others 
in  the  new  Code,  are  applicable  these  sentences  of 
the  reigning  Pontiff  in  his  Bull  of  promulgation, 


fiKr 


-uses 


THE   PRIEST  AS   TRAVELLER 


261 


Providentissima  Mater  Eccletia:  "AU  enactments, 
constitutions  and  privileges  whatsoever,  even  those 
worthy  of  special  and  individual  mention,  and  cus- 
toms, even  immemorial,  and  all  other  things  what- 
soever to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  Where- 
fore let  no  one  violate  or  rashly  oppose  in  any  way 
this  document  of  our  constitution,  ordinnnce,  lim- 
itation, suppression,  derogation,  and  expressed 
will." 

It  means  much,  to  some  of  us  at  any  rate,  that 
the  wise  old  Church,  taking  account  of  her  experi- 
ence throughout  the  centuries,  and  supplementing 
her  previous  legislation  by  specific  statutes  in  har- 
mony with  present-day  conditions,  has  thus  set  the 
seal  of  her  high  approval  on  the  principle  of  vaca- 
tiwis.  Henceforth  a  priest's  taking  his  holidays 
will  be  considered  an  entirely  natural  procedure, 
something  to  be  done  as  a  simple  matter  of  course, 
and  not  a  more  or  less  abnormal  measure,  scarcely 
compatible  with  priestly  zeal,  undertaken  in  some- 
thing of  an  apologetic  spirit,  and  justifiable  only 
as  a  necessary  preventive  of  imminent  physicnl 
collapse  or  nervous  breakdown.  That  a  good 
many  ecclesiastical  and  religious  superiors  have 
hitherto  underestimated  the  importance  of  vaca- 
tions jn  the  life  of  a  priest,  and  quite  '=  ierrated 
the  value  of  periodical  holidays  in  ncreasing  the 
priest's  efficiency  in  his  appointed  wo.k,  is  a  slito- 
ment  not  likely,  we  think,  to  be  called  in  question 
by  any  judicious  cleric  who  has  reached  the  fifth 
decade  of  his  years.  To  speak  of  no  others  than 
the  dead,  we  have  personally  known  several  Ordi- 
naries and  religious  superiors  who,  while  admit- 


262 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUAEDS 


ting  in  theory  the  benefits  of  vacations,  commonly 
refused  in  practice  to  recognize  the  need  of  the 
benefits  in  particular  cases.  They  did  not  agree 
(as  the  Church  in  the  new  Code  does  agree)  with 
the  paradoxical  statement  of  that  distinguished 
physician  who  declares  that  "A  man  can  do  a 
year's  work  in  ten  months;  he  may  manage  to  get 
through  it  in  eleven;  but  he  cannot  possibly  do  it 
in  twelve." 

The   necessity   of   annual   holidays   for   pros- 
pective clerics  has  always  of  course  been  recog- 
nized by  ecclesiastical  authorities.    As  a  boy  and 
&  young  man,  the  future  priest  has  in  all  Catholic 
countries  enjoyed,  every  year,  from  six  or  seven 
to  eight  or  ten  weeks  of  freedom  from  study  at 
college  or  seminary.    Just  why  it  should  ever  have 
been  considered  an  abnormality  and  an  extrava- 
gance for  him  to  keep  up  this  vacation-habit  when 
once  he  had  entered  upon  the  active  work  of  the 
ministry  does  not  seem  very  clear.    Given  that  he 
is   a   zealous    and    energetic   pastor   of   souls — a 
supposition  quite  as  likely  to  be  true  as  is  the 
assumption  that  in  his  seminary  days  he  was  a 
hard-working  student,  a  priest  would  on  the  face 
of  it  appear  to  need  as  frequent  and  as  lengthy 
intervals  of  rest  and  recreation  in  middle  age  as 
were  granted  to  him  in  incipient  manhood.    Nor 
does  the  fact  that  a  considerable  number  of  clerics 
go  on  from  year  to  year  and  even  from  decade  to 
decade  without  taking  a  vacation  constitute  any 
valid  argument  against  either  the  utility  or  the 
congruity  of  the  practice.    To  a  friend  of  ours,  a 
religious  priest  who.  after  a  quarter  of  a  century 


THE   PRIEST  AS   TRAVELLER 


devoted  to  teaching,  had  been  assigned  to  editorial 
work,  and  who,  having  spent  three  years  at  such 
work  without  a  holiday,  finally  asked  his  superior 
for  a  month's  vacation,  this  reply  was  made: 
"Vacation!  What  do  you  want  one  for?  Look  at 
Father  So-and-So.  He  hasn't  had  a  vacation  in 
thirty  years."— "Quite  so,"  said  our  friend;  "he  has 
contracted  the  habit  of  doing  without  holidays,  and 
habit,  as  we  know,  is  second  nature.  You  will 
kindly  remember,  however,  that  for  thirty  years  as 
student  and  professor  I've  been  in  the  habit  of  hav- 
ing two  months  of  vacation  every  year,  and  my 
second  nature  is  quite  as  strong  as  Father  So- 
and-So's.  Moreover,  'tis  a  question  whether  the 
good  Father  would  not  have  done  more  and  better 
work  for  the  past  three  decades  if  he  had  taken  a 
regular  annual  holiday  of  at  least  a  few  weeks." 

As  a  rule,  and  a  rule  that  suffers  not  very  many 
exceptions,  the  professional  man,  priest  or  other, 
who  truthfully  declares  that  he  never  feels  the 
need  of  a  vacation  is  simply  asserting  that  he  does 
not  deserve  one,  that  his  habitual  work  is  not  hard 
enough,  his  customary  activities  not  sufficiently 
strenuous  to  necessitate  the  periodical  counter- 
poise of  change  or  repose.  The  transition  from 
doing  very  little  to  doing  nothing  at  all  really 
merits  the  name  of  intensified  loafing  or  idleness 
rather  than  that  of  a  well-earned  holiday.  To 
play  well  one  must  previously  have  worked  well. 
No  vacation  save  one  which  follows  upon  real  and 
exhausting  labor  is  capable  of  affording  us  any 
genuine  joy  or  exhilaration.  Weeks  of  rest  after 
months  of  continuous  and  strenuous  exertion  are  a 
delight:  but 


264 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


I  ■ 


If  all  the  year  were  playing  boiidaya, 
To  sport  would  be  as  tedious  as  to  work. 

It  is  possible  of  course  that  the  downright  pastor 
who  categorically  condemns  priestly  vacations  as 
a  sheer  waste  of  time,  and  who  complacently  bids 
you:    "Look  at  me,  sir;  I  haven't  been  away  from 
my  parish  for  six  consecutive  days  in  six  limes 
that  many  years" — it  is  possible,  we  say,  that  he 
has  been    throughout   these   years   an   energetic, 
active  laborer  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord;  but  it 
is  not  at  all  improbable  that  he  has  been  vegetating 
rather  than  really  living,  in  the  sense  that  true 
living  is  activity;  that  he  has  habitually  had,  each 
week,  a  moderate  amount  of  work  during  two  or 
three  days  and  an  immoderate  portion  of  leisure 
for  the  remaining  lOur  or  five;  and  that  both  his 
parish  and  himself  would  have  materially  bene- 
fited by  his  occasionally  getting  out  of  the  rut  in 
wlrxh  he  quite  unneccsscrily  cabined  and  cribbed 
and  confined  himself.    On  the  whole,  however,  the 
sacerdotal  life  in  this  countr>'  is  a  busy  one,  and  it 
is  quite  probable  that  more  clerical  vacations  are 
really  earned  than  are  commonly  taken.    Not  to 
take  them  when  they  are  needed  and  possible  is 
the  reverse  of  wisdom,  is  false  economy.     "All 
work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy,"  whether 
Jack  be  a  young  lad  of  sixteen  or  an  old  boy  of 
sixty. 

Not  to  provoke,  on  the  part  of  the  reader,  the 
impatient  inquiry:  "What  has  all  this  to  do  with 
the  indicated  subject  of  the  present  chapter?"  let 
us  have  done  with  comments  on  the  genus  vaca- 
tion, and  confine  our  further  remarks  to  one  of  its 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


265 


species,  travelling.  Not  all  priests  spend  their  vaca- 
tions in  travelling,  nor  arc  all  travelling  priests 
enjoying  a  holiday;  yet  it  is  safe  to  uay  that  the 
majority  of  such  clerics  as  avail  themselves  of 
the  privilege  accorded  them  by  canon  465  of  the 
new  Codex,  and  take  a  continuous  vacation  of  two 
months,  will  devote  the  major  portion  of  that 
period  to  journeys  by  land  or  voyages  at  sea,  or  to 
a  combination  of  both.  And  their  doing  so  will 
assuredly  need  no  justification  or  apology.  At  this 
stage  of  the  world's  history  and  in  this  land  of  the 
preeminently  strenuous  life,  it  would  be  a  ;ask  of 
utter  supererogation  to  multiply  proofs  and  argu- 
ments in  support  of  the  contention  that  travel  is 
both  pleasant  and  useful,  a  legitimate  recreation 
and  a  potent  factor  in  the  acquisition  of  true  edu- 
cation and  general  culture.  To  speak  first  of  its 
pleasantness:  whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all  is 
worth  doing  well,  and  hence  the  more  complete 
the  relaxation  given  to  the  weary  priestly  mind  the 
better.  The  late  E.  H.  Ilarrinian  graphically  sum- 
marized the  philosopliy  of  holidays  in  a  remark 
which  he  made  on<'  morning  just  as  he  was  starting 
on  a  trip  to  Europe.  "It's  a  regular  vacation,"  said 
he  to  a  reporter,  "and  the  man  who  mentions  busi- 
ness to  me  gets  shot."  This  vigorous  declaration 
was  not  of  course  meant  to  be  accepted  at  the  face 
value  of  the  words  themselves;  the  railway  mag- 
nate was  speaking  figuratively;  but  the  spirit  that 
prompted  the  declaration  was  the  proper  spirit  in 
which  to  set  out  upon  a  worth-while  vacation. 
Business,  one's  regular  work,  should  be  as  alien 
to  the  holiday-seeker  «s  is  idle  trifling  to  the  busiest 


SACERDOTAL   SAFEGUARDS 


man  in  business  hours.  This  is  one  reason  why 
ocean  travel  is  so  popuhir  a  form  of  vacation 
among  priests,  as  among  other  professional  men. 

Very  many  persons  have  learned  by  experience 
that  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  everyday  life,  the 
incessant  worries  attendant  upon  one's  profession 
or  calling  are,  for  the  most  part  at  least,  left  behind 
and  forgotten  when  once  one  has  begun  "to  sail 
the  seas  over,  to  cross  the  wide  ocean."    To  the 
really   tired    brain-worker,   is    there   indeed    any 
other  form  of  recreation  so  thoroughly  grateful  as 
an  ocean  voyage  in  summer?    The  present  writer, 
for  one,  has  never  found  its  equal.     Where  else 
can  the  nervously  exhausted  pastor,  the  worn-out 
college  lecturer,  or  the  utterly  weary  writer  enjoy 
repose  so  complete,  luxuriate  in  idleness  at  once 
so  perfect  and  so  healthful  as  on  the  mighty  ex- 
panse that  stretclies  between  the  old  world  and 
the  new?    If,  as  physicians  teach,  the  best  vacation 
for  the  man  who  really  needs  one  is  that  which 
affords  the  fullest  change  from  his  ordinary  life- 
change  of  air  and  diet  and  ideas  and  scenery  and 
people— what   transition  can   compare  with   that 
from  study,  or  office,  or  lecture-room  to  the  breciy 
deck    of    a    handsome    liner    gracefully    gliding 
through  summer  seas?   Who  that  has  ever  enjoyed 
it  can  think  without  longing  of  the  pleasure  and 
exhilaration  and  delicion.s  rest  in  a  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic?    What  luxury  to  recline  at  full  lengtli 
in  an  adjustable  steamer-chair  on  the  sunny  side 
of  the  saloon-deck,   and   note,  between   puffs  of 
your  post-prandial  cigar,  the  ever-varying  aspects 
of  the  multitudinous  blue-black  wavelets  dancing 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


267 


away  on  every  hand  to  join  the  engirdling  sky! 
What  full  <leep  draughts  of  life  and  vigor  one 
drinks  in  while  briskly  promenading  in  the  early 
morning  when  the  breeze  blows  fresh  and  the 
pearly  tints  of  dawn  are  lost  in  a  flood  of  golden 
glory  as  the  sun  emerges  from  the  eastern  waters! 
What  a  sense  of  incomparable  beauty  captivates 
imd  enthralls  one's  being  when 

".     .     .     Hie  moon  is  on  hiph, 
Hnnjr  like  a  jrem  on  the  brow  of  the  sky," 

and  the  raptured  gaze  wanders  from  the  myriad 
star-jets  that  flash  their  radiance  athwart  the  azure 
vault  above  to  the  phosphorescent  glow  that  fitfully 
gleams  in  the  troubled  wake  of  the  coursing  ship! 
Not  that  t)ur  preference  for  ocean  travel  blinds 
us  to  the  pleasures  of  journeying  by  rail,  or  to  the 
enjoyment  of  that  now  almost  antiquated  vehicle 
of  transportation,  the  stage-coach.  Of  this  latter 
method  of  travel,  indeed,  no  one  familiar  with  the 
English  classics  is  likely  to  entertain  derogatory' 
notions,  even  if  he  has  never  personally  experi- 
enced its  delights.  Dickens  and  Thackeray  and 
Lamb  and  Sir  Walter  have  descanted  on  the 
charms  of  stage-coach  and  post-cliaise  in  strains 
so  dithyrnmhie  as  to  su4{gest  that  the  advent  of 
the  steam-locomotive  efifectively  destroyed  the 
romance  of  travel,  Huskin  does  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  "railway  travelling  is  not  travelling  at  all; 
it  is  merely  being  sent  to  a  place,  and  very  little 
(lifFerent  from  becoming  a  parcel."  But  the  whim- 
sical .John  was  in  what  his  contemporary,  Carlyle, 
would  have  called  an  atrabilious  mood  when  he 


J  4 


268 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


delivered  himself  of  that  extravagance;  and,  in  any 
case,  he  had  outlived  the  joys  of  life  before  the 
discomforts  of  early  railway  travel  gave  place  to 
the  luxuries  of  twentieth-century  limited  trains. 
No  one  who  has  travelled  by  rail  from  Bordeaux 
to  Lourdes,  and  caught  the  while  his  first  glimpse 
of  the  snow-capped  Pyrenees;  or  from  Marseilles 
to  Genoa  along  the  Mediterranean  shore,  with  the 
deeply,  darkly,  beautifully  blue  waters  on  one 
hand  and  the  towering  peaks  of  the  Maritime  Alps 
on  the  other,  will  admit  for  a  moment  that  a  rail- 
way journey  cannot  be  a  delight.    Still  less  will 
such  an  admission  be  made  by  the  fortunate  trans- 
continental tourist  who,  from  the  open-air  exten- 
sion of  a  Canadian  Pacific  observation-car,  has 
gazed    with    admiring    awe    on    the    magnificent 
scenic  panorama  unrolled  before  him  as  he  jour- 
neyed through  the  Canadian  Rockies,  or  "stopped 
over"  at  Banff  or  Glacier  or  Lake  Louise  to  feast 
on  the  sublimity  of  Nature  in  its  very  home. 

There  is  another  species  of  travelling  which  in 
very  recent  years  has  come  into  vogue,  not  merely 
for  brief  excursions  of  a  few  hours'  duration,  but 
for  touring  expeditions  lasting  weeks  or  even 
months—automobiling.  Of  its  distinctive  pleas- 
ures and  advantages  the  present  writer's  experi- 
ence has  been  all  too  limited  to  enable  him  to 
speak  with  knowledge  or  authority;  but,  on  the 
face  of  it,  the  motor-car  should  combine  some  of 
the  most  pleasant  features  of  the  old-time  stage- 
coach and  the  modern  railway  train— the  freedom 
and  closeness  to  nature  of  the  one  and  the  ex- 
hilarating speed  of  the  other.    Antedating  all  the 


:  I    1       i      • 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


269 


methods  of  locomotion  or  peregrination  thus  far 
mentioned  —  automobiles,  railways,  coaches,  or 
vessels — there  is  of  course  the  primal  method  of 
which  Ben  Franklin  said,  "He  that  can  travel  well 
afoot  keeps  a  good  horse."  Of  the  many  and  varied 
joys  of  walking,  as  of  its  beneflcent  effect  in  secur- 
ing the  perfection  of  health,  we  could  at  need 
speak  with  more  effusiveness  than  would  perhaps 
suit  the  taste  of  our  readers,  and  speak,  too,  from 
an  experience  which  is  perhaps  somewhat  unusual 
among  clerical  travellers,  at  least  in  the  United 
States.  We  can  personally  "travel  so  wt'll  afoot" 
that  during  the  past  twelve  years  we  have,  equiva- 
lently,  twice  circumambulated  the  terrestrial 
sphere — have  walked  an  aggregate  of  fifty  thou- 
sand miles.  This  rather  imposing  total  has  been 
attained  by  habitually  walking  for  exercise  twelve 
miles  a  day,  and  by  occasionally  taking  an  all-day 
jaunt  of  twenty,  thirty  or  forty  miles.  The  largest 
single  item  of  the  total  is  fifty  miles,  the  distance 
pedestrianized  on  our  fiftieth  birthday.  Vacations 
spent  in  walking  tours,  be  it  remarked  incidentally, 
are  less  common  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  than 
in  Europe;  but  they  are  by  no  means  the  least 
pleasant  or  least  beneficial  types  of  holiday- 
making. 

It  has  been  said  on  a  former  page  that  travelling 
is  not  only  a  legitimate  recreation  but  an  educa- 
tional and  cultural  factor  in  life.  Tin-  truth  of 
this  assertion  is  vouched  for  by  the  phiI(>so[)hers 
and  moralists  of  all  time.  "He  who  never  leaves 
his  own  country,"  says  Goldoni,  "is  full  of 
prejudice."    "The  use  of  travelling,"  declares  Dr. 


270 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Johnson,  "is  to  rcgulaU'  imagination  by  reality, 

and,  instead  of  thinking  how  things  may  be,  to  see 

them  as  they  are."   "Nothing,"  afTirms  Isaac  Watts, 

"tends  so  niiicli  to  enlarge  the  mind  as  travelling. 

that  is,  making  visits  to  other  towns,  cities,  or 

countries  beside  those  in  which  we  were  born  and 

educated."    "Rather  see  the  wonders  of  the  world 

abroad,"  advises  Shakespeare,  "than,  living  dully 

sluggardized  at  home,  wear  out  thy  vouth  with 

shapeless  idh'ness."    It  is  true,  no  do  b*   that  not 

all  persons  derive  from  travelhng  the  luii  benefit 

it  is  calculated  to  bestow.    "Men  may  change  their 

climate,"  says  Addison,  "but  they  cannot  change 

their  nature.    A  man  that  goes  out  a  fool  cannoi 

ride  or  sail  himself  into  common  sense."    Socrates 

said  much  the  same  thing  when,  on  being  told  that 

an    acquaintance   was   nothing  improved  by   his 

travels,  he  rephed :    "I  can  well  believe  it,  for  he 

took  himself  along  with  him."    We  have  all,  very 

probably,  had  occasion  to  verify  the  words  of  the 

Persian  poet,  "A  traveller  without  observation  is  a 

bird  without  wings,"  and  to  note,  with  Cowper, 

IIow  ranch  a  dunce  that  hath  been  sent  (o  roam 
Exct'ls  a  dmiee  tliat  hath  been  kept  at  home; 

but,  due  allowance  being  made  for  exception'^l 
cases,  the  general  truth  remains  that,  as  Matthews 
phrases  it,  "Travel  brushes  away  the  contracted- 
ness,  shakes  off  the  one-sidedness,  knocks  out  the 
nonsense,  and  polishes  the  manners  of  a  man, 
more  cflFectually  than  any  other  agency."  Now, 
this  truth  has  a  more  immediate  bearing  on  Amer- 
icans generally,  and  on  young  American  priests 


y 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


271 


particularly,  than  is,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  com- 
monly realized  by  either  the  lay  or  clerical  citizens 
of  "this  greatest  country  on  earth." 

The  tendency  to  confound  patriotism  with 
spread-eagleism,  or  with  chauvinism,  is  not  per- 
haps so  pronounced  among  twentieth-century 
Americans  as  it  was  with  their  fathers  and  grand- 
fathers; it  is  less  a  national  characteristic  now- 
adays than  when  Dickens  satirized  it  in  his 
"Martin  Chuzzlewit"  and  "American  Notes";  but 
it  can  scarcely  be  denied  that  tlie  tendency  is  even 
now,  especially  among  the  untravelled  classes  of 
our  citizens,  more  common  than  judicious  Amer- 
icans like  to  see  it.  Love  of  one's  country,  the 
passion  which  moves  .»  person  to  serve  that  coun- 
try, either  in  defending  it  from  invasion  or  in  pro- 
tecting its  nghts  and  maintaining  its  laws  and 
institutions  that  is  a  virtue  entirely  congruous  and 
laudable;  but  it  in  no  way  entails  or  involves  the 
vainglorious  belief  or  the  bombastic  assertion  that 
all  other  coimtries  are  infinitely  inferior  to  one's 
own.    Goldsmith's  couplet. 

Slid)  is  the  pntriols  boast,  wlicrp'er  we  roam, 
His  first,  best  comili-j'  ever  is  at  home, 

is  true,  it  is  clear,  in  the  subjective  sense  only. 
His  home  country  cpiite  naturally  is,  and  should  be, 
first  in  the  patriot's  affections,  best  loved  of  all 
countries;  hui  it  detract  nothing  from  the  gen- 
uineness nf  Ms  !ovc  to  recognize  that,  objectively 
con:  ;..i  ■  xi,  that  ;  ^me  country  may  ?' v/c  its  limita- 
tioi  ?  and,  as  .or.ipared  with  other  lands,  may  in 
a  nuiv,L.^r  o/  respects  be  neither  first  nor  best.    The 


272 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


.■  i 


United  States  has  a  sufliciont  number  of  natural 
and  political  advantages  to  warrant  a  reasonable 
degree  of  pride  in  her  patriotic  sons;  but  it  is  the 
merest  absurd  exaggeration  to  claim  for  her  that 
she  has  reached  the  climax  of  national  perfectibil- 
ity, or  that  she  has  "the  brainiest  men,  the  cleverest 
women,  the  smartest  boys,  and  the  prettiest  girls  in 
the  universe." 

Now,  the  surest  cure  for  national  vanity  is  for- 
eign travel.  Even  a  liberal  education  and  llie 
wide  reading  which  it  supposes  cannot  fully  sup- 
ply the  lack  of  actual  contact  with  the  mhabitants 
of  other  lands  than  ours,  or  rid  us  completely  of 
prejudices,  misconceptions,  and  false  opinions  con- 
cerning the  millions  of  people  beyond  our  own 
territorial  boundaries.  What  used  to  be  called  the 
Chinese  cast  of  mind,  a  stupid  contempt  for  every- 
tliing  beyond  the  wall  of  llieir  celestial  empire,  is 
bound  in  some  degree  to  characterize  the  untrav- 
ellcd,  the  stay-at-l:'>mes — even  the  clerical  stay-at- 
homes.  To  cite  a  common  case:  Father  Johnson 
is  a  clever  rnd  energetic  young  priest,  acting  as 
curate  in  a  city  parish.  He  was  born  in  a  rural 
district,  attended  college  in  his  own  State,  and  pur- 
sutu  his  theological  studies  in  i  seminary  some 
two  nundred  nii'es  from  his  lioine.  His  travels 
thus  far  in  his  vpner  have  not  rarrled  him  to  more 
than  two  or  three  States  immediately  adjoining  his 
own.  In  his  parish  work  he  comes  in  contact  with 
a  number  of  foreigners  of  different  nationalities, 
all  of  them  day-laborers,  and  most  of  them  illit- 
erate, if  not  ignorant.  Now,  Father  Johnson  pre- 
sumably knows,  theoretically,  or  he  ought  to  know. 


i  t 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


273 


that  these  working  men  and  women  cannot  be 
looked  upon  as  fairly  representative  of  the  civiliza- 
tion or  culture  attained  bv  the  respective  races  to 
which  they  belong,  any  more  than  the  rowdies  and 
"toughs"  of  New  York  or  Chicago  are  representa- 
tive of  American  culture;  yet  his  impressions  and 
views  of  each  of  these  races  as  a  whole  are  safe  to 
be  colored,  or  rather  sadly  discolored,  by  his  ob- 
servation of  the  unrepresentative  individuals  with 
whom  he  is  familiar.  The  proof  is,  that  a  few 
years  hence  when  the  young  priest  visits  the  home- 
lands of  these  foreigners,  ho  will  And  himself  aston- 
ished at  the  ( vidcnces  of  prosperity  and  culture 
and  eminence  in  literature  and  art  and  science  that 
greet  him  on  every  side.  We  have  occasionally 
heard  youthful  American  clerics,  otherwise  sane 
enough,  oracularly  setting  forth  the  inferiority  of 
Frenchmen  and  Italians  and  Spaniards  with  a 
supercilious  air  that  would  have  been  merely  lu- 
dicrous had  it  not  been  pathetic.  Without  being 
at  all  conscious  of  the  fact,  they  belonged  to  the 
class  oi  whom  Rabelais  says:  "They  seem  to  have 
lived  all  thefr  life  in  a  barrel  and  to  have  looked 
cut  only  at  tht  bung-hole." 

To  many  priests  of  course,  ns  to  many  laymen, 
travelling  assumes  the  guise,  not  of  a  pleasant  rec- 
reation or  an  opportunity  for  broadening  one's 
culture,  but  of  work  pure  and  simple,  an  integral 
part  of  their  appointed  vocation.  Preaching  m's- 
sions  and  retreats,  attending  conventions  of  a 
dozen  different  varieties,  assisting  at  Eucharistic 
Congresses,  lecturing  in  behalf  of  some  religious  or 
social  cause — these  and  the  like  occasions  or  cir- 
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MICROCOPY   RESOLUTION  TEST  CHART 

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274 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


i| 


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cumstances     necessarily    entail     a     considerable 
amount  of  journeying  to  and  fro,  both  in  one's  own 
country  and  not  infrequently  in  other  lands  as 
well.    Such  quasi-compulsory  travelling  is  not  in- 
variably a  delight;  often  indeed,  especially  to  the 
elderly  cleric  who  has  outlived  the  youthful  love 
of  adventure,  it  is  an  unmitigated  nuisance.  In  some 
cases,  no  doubt,  the  essential  difference  between 
travelling  for  pleasure  and  travelling  on  business 
is  much  the  same  as  the  distinction  made  by  the 
philosophical  small  boy  between  fun  and  work: 
"Fun  is  work  that  you  haven't  got  to  do,  and  work 
is  fun  that  you've  got  to  do."     A  little  sane  op- 
timism, such  as  should  characterize  all  clerics,  not 
only  makes  a  virtue  of  necessity  but  knows  how 
to  transform  a  task  into  a  pleasure,  a  necessary 
journey  into  a  delightful  outing. 

As  for  the  personal  behavior,  deportment,  usual 
practice,  or  general  conduct  most  congruous  to  the 
travelling  priest,  opinions  thereon  will  probably 
differ  as  widely  as  do  individual  characters  and 
temperaments.   Every  one  will  admit  that  a  cleric's 
attitude  towards  his  travelling  companions  may  sin 
in  either  of  two  ways:  it  may  be  too  indiscrim- 
inately hail-fellow-well-met,  or  too  reserved,  stand- 
offish, and  repellent.    The  proper  attitude  lies,  as 
all  will  agree,  midway  between  these  extremes; 
and,  on  the  whole,  there  is  perhaps  less  danger  of 
a  priest's  manifesting  undue  affabihty  than  of  his 
holding  himself  too  much  aloof  from  those  into 
whose  company  circumstances  have  thrown  him. 
Apropos  of  sociability  or  friendliness  in  travellers, 
there  is  in  one  of   Scott's   novels   a   paragraph 


THE    PRIEST    AS    TRAVELLER 


275 


which,  apart  from  its  autol)iographieal  interest,  is 
worth    while    thinking    about.      "For    ourselves," 
writes  Sir  Walter,  "we  can  assure  the  reader — and 
perhaps  if  we  have  ever  been  able  to  aft'ord  him 
amusement,  it  is  owing  in  a  great  degree  to  this 
cause — that  we  have  never  found  ourselves  in  com- 
pany with  the  stupitlest  of  all  possible  comp  nions 
in  a  post-chaise,  or  with  the  most  arrant  cumber- 
comer  that  ever  occupied  a  place  in  the  mail-coach, 
without  flnding  that,  in  the  course  of  our  conver- 
sation with  him,  we  had  some  ideas  suggested  to 
us,  either  grave  or  gay,  or  some  information  com- 
municated in  the  course  of  our  journey  which  we 
should  have  regretted  not  to  have  learned,  and 
which  we  should  be  sorr>'  to  have  immediately  for- 
gotten."   Substitute  smoking-car  and  steamer-deck 
for  post-chaise  and  mail-coach,  and  the  foregoing 
will  serve  as  an  accurate  account  of  the  experience 
of  many  a  traveller,  clerical  and  lay,  since  Sir  Wal- 
ler's time,  of  every  traveller  indeed  who  combines 
with   ordinary    culture    a    modicum    of   practical 
philosophy  and  cheerful  coninion  sense.    Civility 
in  one's  intercourse  with   travelling  companions, 
readiness  to  he  addressed  by  and  to  converse  with 
those  in  whose  society  we  are  to  make  a  journey 
of  hours  or  days,  a  geniality  that  knows  how  to 
dispense  on  occasion  with  the  formality  of  a  cere- 
monious introduction — these  are  qualities  which,  if 
not  natural  to  a  priest,  should  in  our  opinion  be 
acquired  by  him  if  he  is  desirous  or  either  deriving 
full   benefit   from    his   travels   or   improving   the 
opportunities  of  doing  good   which  his  travelling 
affords  him. 


I 


276 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


Ml 


It  may  be  quite  unnecessary,  but  it  can  do  no 
harm,  to  remark  t'  it  one  of  the  dangers  of  travel- 
ling, at  least  for  the  laity,  is  a  tendency  to  consider 
one's  self  more  or  less  emancipated  from  the  strict 
letter  of  the  law  regulating  the  correctness  and 
moral  propriety  of  one's  normal  life.    Even  the 
clergy,  perhaps,  or  at  least  the  younger  members 
of  that  body,  may  profitably  take  to  heart  the  les- 
son conveyed  in  the  following  paragraph  from  a 
secular  moralist:     "There  is  nothing  that  a  man 
can  less  afford  to  leave  at  home  than  his  conscience 
or  his  good  habits;  for  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
travel  is,  in  its  immediate  circumstances,  unfavor- 
able   to  habits    of    self-discipline,    regulation    of 
thought,  sobriety  of  conduct,  and  dignity  of  char- 
acter.   Indeed,  one  of  the  great  lessons  of  travel  is 
the  discovery  how  much  our  v'^-tues  owe  to  the 
support  of  constant  occupation,  to  the  influence  of 
public  opinion,  and  to  the  force  of  habit;  a  discov- 
ery very  dangerous,  if  it  proceed  from  an  actual 
yielding  to  temptations  resisted  at  home,  and  not 
from  a  consciousiicss  of  increased  power  put  forth 
in  withstanding  them."    Needless  to  say,  the  doc- 
trine set  forth  in  this  quotation  conflicts  in  no  way 
with  what  has  been  asserted  above  concerning  the 
advisability  of  a  travelling  priest's  showing  himself 
affable  and  courteous.    His  conscience  and  good 
habits   are  not   at  all  involved   in   his  avoiding 
brusqueness  or  churlishness  of  manner,  or  in  his' 
cultivating  pleasantly   genial  relations  with   the 
circle  in  which  for  the  time  being  he  is  moving. 

A  question  sometimes  discussed  in  connection 
with  our  subject  is  the  relative  advantage  or  dis- 


THE  PRIEST  AS  TRAVELLER  277 


advantage  of  a  priest's  travelling  alone  rather  than 
in  the  company  of  a  friend,  or  friends.    What  may 
at  first  blush  appear  to  be  the  obvious  conclusion — 
that  it  is  not  good  for  a  traveller  to  be  alone — will 
be  found  on  consideration  to  be  less  indubitably 
correct  than  it  is  generally  supposed  to  be.    The 
preponderance  of  traditional  practice  is  doubtless 
an  argument  in  favor  of  having  a  companion,  and 
the  rules  of  religious  orders  commonly  require  the 
company  of  a  socius.    There  is,  moreover,  the  sat- 
isfaction,  at  least   when   one's   companion   is   a 
brother  priest,  of  knowing  that  in  case  of  accidents 
one  will  not  be  deprived  of  spiritual  succor.    On 
the  other  hand,  however,  the  company  of  a  friend 
or  of  friends  involves  several  unequivocal  disad- 
vantages, or  conditions  looked  upon  as  such  by 
not  a  few  travellers  of  experience.    To  begin  with, 
if  the  ideal  vacation  means,  as  has  been  said,  as 
complete  a  change  as  possible  from  one's  ordinary 
life — a  change  of  people  and  ideas  as  well  as  of 
scenery,  diet,  etc. — then  the  presence  of  a  friend 
prevents  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  holiday.   "Those 
who  visit  foreign  nations,"  says  Colton,  "but  asso- 
ciate only  with  their  own  countrymen,  change  their 
climate,  but  not  their  customs.     They  see  new 
meridians,  but  the  same  men;  and  with  heads  as 
empty  as  their  pockets,  return  home  with  travelled 
bodies,  but  untravelled  minds." 

In  the  second  place,  unless  one  has  th^"  phe- 
nomenal good  fortune  of  securing  a  travelling  com- 
panion whose  tastes,  inclinations,  turn  of  mind, 
dispositions,  proclivities,  and  even  idiosyncrasies, 
are  identical  with  our  own,  this  condition  will  fre- 


278 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


U;l     ii. 


qu  ntly  arise:  either  we  shall  have  to  fore^j  our 
own  pleasure  to  accommodate  our  friend,  or  ho 
will  have  to  forego  his  to  accommodate  us.  II 
would  L-i  uncourteous  to  insist  on  always  having 
one's  own  way,  and  accordingly  one  makes  sac- 
rifices on  the  altar  of  politeness.  The  supreme 
advantage  of  independent  travelling,  as  distin- 
guished from  either  touring  with  a  party  or  accom- 
panying a  friend,  is  the  privilege  one  enjoys  of 
shaping  one's  course  just  as  seems  good  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment,  the  freedom  to  alter  and 
modify  at  will  all  pre-arranged  plans,  the  con- 
sciousness that  one  may  stop  where  one  pleases 
and  stay  there  as  long  as  one  pleases,  irrespective 
of  the  likes  or  dislikes  of  anyone  else.  As  for  the 
objection  that,  when  travelling  alone,  one  is  de- 
prived of  the  social  intercourse,  the  periodical  con- 
versations of  which  even  the  most  self-centred 
individuals  feel  the  need,  the  answer  would  seem 
to  be  that  such  deprivation  is  not  at  all  compul- 
sory. Given  the  atfability  advocated  in  this 
chapter,  the  solitary  cleric  may  have  all  the  con- 
versation he  cares  for  as  often  as  he  feels  inclined 
to  indulge  therein. 

In  the  final  analysis,  the  degree  of  pleasure  and 
profit  which  the  priest  derives  from  travelling 
depends  perhaps  on  his  approximation  to  the 
standard  of  "the  good  mixer."  Not  pleasure  and 
profit,  but  their  opposites  accrue  as  a  rule  to  the 
ultra-reserved  clerics  who  immure  themselves  in 
"the  Bastille  of  their  rank,"  as  some  writer  has 
happily  described  "that  sort  of  shyness  which  men 
of  dignified   situation   are  apt   to  be  beset  with. 


■«fcVEF 


THE   PRIEST   AS   TRAVELLER 


279 


rather  from  not  exactly  knowing  how  far  or  with 
whom  they  ought  to  be  familiar  than  from  any 
touch  of  aristocratic  pride."    The  dignity  of  the 
priesthood  should  of  course  be  preserved  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places,  by  travelling  clerics  as  by 
their  stay-at-home  brethren;  but  affability,  prop- 
erly understood,  never  compromised  any  dignity 
really  worthy  of  the  name,  and  a  genial  disposi- 
tion is  an  asset  which  a  priest,  even  while  enjoying 
his  vacation,  can  readily  turn  to  the  spiritual  ad- 
vantage of  the  temporary  acquaintances  with  whom 
he  comes  in  contrct.    To  conclude  with  a  rettection 
from  the  transcendentalist,  Thoreau,  although  it 
might   well   be   credited   to  Thomas   a  Kempis: 
"Only  that  travelling  is  good  which  reveals  to  me 
the  value"  of  home,  and  enables  me  to  enjoy  it 
better." 


♦  p 


A  PRIESTLY  KNIGHT  OF  MARY 

Let  us  now  praise  men  of  renown,  and  our  fathers  in  their 
generation.— JfccItM.:  xliv,  1. 

♦i..J°  "^®  "'t  *.!^."  ^""^  I"*"y  "^^  **>**  "^ro  K'***,  and  some  men 
CoitoV^         '         ''"^         ™®°  *****  ""*  *^**'  ^***  *°"*  good.— 

,««w"  ^"^*f  *  """?  "  "l®  ''^**  '=*'°**«®^  t'^e  right  with  invincible 
resolution;  who  resists  the  sorest  temptations  from  within  and 
without;  who  bears  the  heaviest  burdens  cheerfully;  who  is  calmest 
in  storms,  and  most  fearless  under  menace  and  frowns;  and  whose 
Oumn^  *"*  °°  ^''*"'''  "**  **°  ^°^'  "  ""*'*  unfaltering.— 

'"T^HE  age  of  chivalry  has  gone!"    The  world 
■■-     is  now  older  by  a  century  and  a  quarter 
than  when  the  lament  was  first  called  forth  by  the 
unhappy  fate  of  France's  fairest  Queen;  and  dur- 
ing   the    intervening    decades    the    "sophisters, 
economists,  and  calculators"  whose  spirit  Burke 
disparaged  have  probably  net  grown  either  fewer 
m  number  or  more  sensitive  to  the  dictates  of  lofty 
honor.    Yet  though  our  own  age,  judged  by  its 
more  prominent  and  apparently  its  most  sym- 
metrical expressions,  deserves  still  less  perhaps 
than  that  of  Burke  the  distinctive  epithet  of  "chiv- 
alrous," no  sane  observer  of  the  undercurrents  of 
modern  life  will  affirm  that  men  grow  worse  as 
the  world  grows  older,  or  that  the  chivalric  senti- 
ment has  utterly  perished. 

The  outward  manifestations  of  the  sentiment 
have  doubtless  taken  new  and  different  forms. 
The  knights  of  to-day  energize  in  other  fields  than 
did  their  plumed  and  mail-clad  predecessors  of 

280 


A   PRIESTLY   KNIGHT   OF   MARY 


281 


centuries  gone  by;  but  lofty  virtues  and  heroic 
deeds  do  still  relieve  the  commonplaces  of  life; 
and  even  in  this  age  of  aggressive  utilitarianism 
and  frenetic  Mammon-worship  knights  there  are 
as  valiant  and  as  noble,  as  fearless  and  without 
reproach,  as  ever  were  the  dauntless  cavaliers  who 
in  the  zenith  of  chivalry's  golden  day  protected  the 
helpless,  succored  the  distressed,  rescued  captive 
damsels  from  embattled  towers,  applauded  tales 
of  high  emprise  at  » rth'ir's  Table  Round,  or  envied 
pure  Sir  Galahu  '  '  aseless  quest  of  the  Holy 

Grail.     Nor  ne^^  lact  be  accounted  strange. 

Courtesy,  valor,  mi^f^aanimity,  and  love  are  as  in- 
digenous to  the  human  heart  in  these  modern  times 
as  they  were  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centu- 
ries; and  She  who  proved  the  fountain-source  that 
watend  those  fragrant  flowers  during  chivalry's 
full  noontide  still  aids  and  fosters  their  perfect 
growth  in  each  of  the  successive  generations  that 
have  learned  to  call  Her  blessed. 

The  transcendent  beauty  of  the  Virgin-Mother 
was  the  initial  inspiration  of  knighthood.  The  re- 
spectful enthusiasm  for  woman,  which  was  the 
dominant  note  of  chivalry  while  its  glory  lasted, 
was  the  direct  outcome  of  devotion  to  the  Immacu- 
late Mother  of  the  world's  Redeemer.  'The  Virgin 
Mary,"  says  a  non-Catholic  author,  "was  exalted 
by  the  Chujch  to  a  central  figure  of  devotion;  and 
in  her  ele\ation,  woman,  from  being  associated 
with  ideas  of  degradation  and  sensuality,  rose  into 
a  new  sphere,  and  became  ♦he  object  of  a  rever- 
ential regard  unknown  to  the  proudest  civilizations 
of  the  past."    In  the  lady  whose  colors  he  wore. 


282 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


whose  virtues  he  extolled,  and  whose  honor  he 
defended,  the  Christian  chevalier  beheld  a  traein^j 
in  outline,  a  faint  and  shadowy  copy,  of  the  Lady 
par  excellence,  the  incomparable  sovereign  of  his 
heart's  veneration— Mary,  the  Queen  of  Heaven. 
Nor  was  his  prowess  less  mighty,  his  achievements 
less  noble,  nor  his  fame  less  assured,  when,  as  fre- 
quently happened,  he  proffered  to  this  heavenly 
Mistress  the  full  and  undivided  homage  of  his 
heart— giving  of  his  love  to  no  earthly  maiden,  and 
wearing  no  colors  save  the  Virgin's  own. 

Such    a   Knight   of   Mary,   valiant,   courteous, 
gentle— ever  sensitive  as  to  his  Lady's  honor,  un- 
wearied throughout  -  lengthy  life  in  voicing  her 
praises,  and  successfu.  oeyond  most  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  promoting  her  glory— was  the  veteran 
ecclesiastic  whose  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin 
these  lines  are  meant,  lovingly  if  inadequately,  to 
record— Father  Edward  Sorin,  lat-  Superior  Gen- 
eral   of    the    Congregation    of   l.oly   Cross,    and 
founder  of  Notre  Dame  University.     Were  any 
apology  needed  for  the  inclusion  of  such  a  bio- 
graphical sketch  in  this  volume,  it  would  be  found 
in  the  recent  celebration  of  Notre  Dame's  Diamond 
Jubilee,  and  in  the  consideration— especially  inter- 
esting in  these  days  when  the  loyalty  of  citizens  of 
alien  birth  is  more  or  less  generally  suspected— 
that  this  European  cleric  ceased  to  be  European 
from  the  moment  he  landed  in  the  United  States, 
and  for  a  full  half  century  tliereafter  showed  him- 
self, in  fullest  faith  and  patriotic  love,  in  eloquent 
word  and  convincing  deed,  American  of  the  Amer- 
icans. 


A   PRIESTLY   KNIGHT   OF   MARY 


283 


Born  in  France,  a  country  which  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  an  eventful  history  has  ever  seemed 
to  enjoy  the  predilection  of  Mary  -a  land  where 
every  province  is  dotted  with  her  shrines,  and 
'vhere  for  upwards  of  a  thousand  years  the  echoes 
of  lier  pi'grinis'  canticles  have  never  ceased  re- 
ounding — Edward  Sorin  imbihed  at  his  mother's 
knee,  in  the  Christian  school  which  was  tijc  scene 
of  his  boyish  studies,  and  in  the  very  atmosphere 
of  his  native  village,  Ahuille,  an  especially  tender 
love  for  the  Mother  of  (lod,  together  with  an  utter 
and  absolute  confidence  in  her  protecting  care.  In 
him  this  love  and  confidence,  happily  not  uncom- 
mon in  the  innocent  and  ingenuous  hearts  o'  the 
young,  survived  undimmed  the  dangerous  period 
of  adolescence;  grew  broader,  deeper,  and  more 
firm  in  the  busy  years  of  youthful  manhood; 
glowed  with  an  ever-increasing  intensity  through- 
out a  maturity  of  arduous  labor  and  incessant  sac- 
rifice; and  still  formed  the  dis.  nguishing  trait  of 
his  inner  life  when,  crowned  with  the  halo  of  four- 
score fruitful  years,  he  told  his  beads  on  hiv,  bed  of 
death,  and  joyed  in  the  thought  of  speedily  greet- 
ing at  long  last — his  Mother. 

His  Mother!  That  phrase  tells  the  whole  story 
of  Father  Sorin's  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin — 
of  the  wealth  of  love  he  lavished  upon  her,  the 
jealous  care  with  which  he  guarded  her  interests, 
the  magnificent  enterprises  which  he  undertook  in 
her  name  and  carried  out  to  a  successful  issue  for 
her  greater  glory.  She  was  ever  and  always,  in 
very  truth,  his  Mother — one  to  whom  at  every  stage 
of  his  earthly  pilgrimage  he  looked  for  loving  sym- 


284 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


pathy;  to  whom  he  confided  all  \ns  trials,  cares, 
griefs,  and  woes  with  the  certain  assurance  of  ton- 
sequent  solace;  and  whom  on  the  other  hand  he 
never  failed  to  associate  with  his  joys,  successes, 
and  triumphs.    In  his  eyes  Mary  was  not  only  the 
Immaculate  Virgin,  incomparable  in  grace  and  dig- 
nity among  all  created  beings;  the  Mother  of  the 
Incarnate  Word,  and  as  such  to  be  reverenced  with 
a  worship  inferior  only  to  that  accorded  to  God 
Himself;  the  Queen  by  a  thousam!  valid  titles  of 
men  and  angels,  and  therefore  worthy  of  all  loyal 
homage:  she  was,  moreover,  his  own  real  Mother 
who  regarded  him  as  a  darling  son,  to  be  loved 
and  cared  for,  and  soothed  and  comforted  and  pro- 
tected with  a  tenderness  undreamt  of  by  the  fond- 
est maternal  heart  that  has  ever  llirobbed  on  earth 
since  Mary's  exile  ended  on  the  day  of  her  glorious 
Assumption. 

In  this  view  of  the  reciprocal  relations  between 
the  Blessed  Virgin  and  himself,  the  subject  of  our 
sketch  was  practically  as  childlike  in  his  eightieth 
year  as  in  his  eighth.  Neither  physical  develop- 
ment, nor  intellectual  growth,  nor  the  ceaseless 
activities  of  missionary  and  official  life,  availed  to 
modify  in  the  slightest  degree  his  deep-rooted  con- 
victions as  to  the  significance  of  Our  Lady's  ma- 
ternity, and  the  import  of  the  duties,  obligations, 
rights,  and  privileges  implied  in  that  sweet  title 
applicable  to  every  individual  of  the  Church's  mil- 
lions, "child  of  Mary."  The  voice  which,  clear  and 
strong,  was  wont  in  1820  to  repeat  "Je  vous  salue, 
Marie"  before  the  Virgin's  altar  in  the  modest 
chapel  of  Ahuill^,  had  grown  lo^      id  feeble  seven 


A   PRIESTLY   KNIQHT   OF   MARY        285 


decades  later  as  it  murmured,  "Hai;  Mary,  full  of 
grace,"  in  the  cathedral-like  church  at  Notre 
Dame;  but  the  greeting  had  lost  nothing  of  its  sim- 
plicity or  its  (  .ndor,  and  the  heart  of  the  aged 
patriarch  proffered  to  his  heavenly  Mother  a  love 
as  fresh  and  ardent  as  ever  thrilled  that  of  the 
innocent  child. 

From  boyhood  to  manhood,  from  manhood  to 
old  age,  in  brief,  Edward  Sorin  took  our  Lord  at 
His  word.  "Son,  behold  thy  Mother,"  was  to  liim 
not  a  mere  directive  counsel  given  to  St.  John,  nor 
yet  a  sweet  privilege  restricted  to  that  Beloved 
Disciple;  but  a  statement  of  fact  that  inti^^ately 
concerned  himself  personally,  and  a  truth  -' ncli 
ought  materially  to  affect  the  whole  course  oi  his 
private  life  and  public  conduct.  That  he  never 
had  reason  to  question  the  correctness  of  this  view, 
or  regret  the  boundless  confidence  in  the  Blessed 
Virgin  which  it  naturally  engendered,  needs  scarce- 
ly to  be  stated.  His  career  in  the  United  States 
furnishes  overwhelming  proofs  (were  any  such 
necessary  to  confirm  a  doctrine  universal  among 
Catholics)  that  Our  Lady  never  fails  to  justify  the 
wisdom  of  those  who  confide  in  hei  power  and 
goodness,  nor  ever  allows  herself  to  be  outdone  in 
generosjty. 

The  outlines  of  that  career,  coincident  with  the 
history  of  Notre  Dame's  humble  foundation,  rapid 
growth,  and  marvelous  development,  have  been 
too  recently  sketched  in  the  columns  of  the  Amer- 
ican Catholic  press  to  need  extended  recapitula- 
tion here.  And  yet,  as  illustrating  the  filial 
reliance  of  Father  Sorin  on  the  protecting  care  of 


286 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


the  Mother  whom  he  loved  so  tenderly,  and  as 
emphasizing  the  congruousness  of  unlimited  trust 
in  the  Blessed  Virgin  on  the  part  of  every  priest  of 
Ciod  in  the  United  States  or  elsewhere,  the  story 
of  Notre  Dame  can  scarcely  be  told  too  often. 
There  is  no  member  of  the  American  clergy  espe- 
cially, from  the  humblest  rural  curate  to  the  rank- 
ing cardinal  in  our  country's  hierarcliy,  who  may 
not  draw  from  its  perusal  abundant  store  of  in- 
spiration and  hope  and  courage  for  his  individual 
labors  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.  It  is  emphat- 
ically a  tale  of  deeds  performed  by  men  of  faith; 
an  account  of  herculean  labors  undertaken  with  an 
eye  single  to  the  glory  of  God  and  His  gracious 
Mother;  a  record  of  zeal  rewarded,  of  sacrifices 
blest,  of  supernatural  love  triumphant  over  every 
obstacle. 

Three-quarters  of  a  century  ago,  when  Father 
Sorin,  a  poor  young  foreign  missionary  priest,  and 
half  a  dozen  poor  foreign  missionary  Brothers  set- 
tled upon  an  uncultivated  tract  of  forest  land  with 
naught  but  a  little  rude  log-cabin  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  merest  sylvan  wilderness,  confidence  in 
the  Mother  of  God,  supplemented  by  their  individ- 
ual labors,  was  the  only  capital  they  had  to  invest 
in  the  arduous  enterprise  of  founding  in  that  West- 
ern country  a  shrine  of  religious  education.  No 
princely  endowment  of  a  million  dollars,  or  a  hun- 
dred thousand,  or  a  tithe  thereof,  came  to  accel- 
erate their  material  prosperity;  yet  never  did  dol- 
lars and  cents  invested  in  a  business  venture  yield 
such  magnificent  results  as  have  sprung  from  their 
steadfast  reliance  on  Our  Lady's  aid  and  their  con- 


A   PRIESTLY    KNIGHT    OF    MARY 


287 


stant  endeavors  lo  preserve  Her  favor.  Much  has 
been  written  of  the  wondrous  development  during 
the  past  half-century  of  the  great  metropolis  of  the 
Middle  West;  but,  stupendous  as  has  undoubtedly 
been  the  growth  of  the  village  by  Lake  Michigan 
that  hu  come  to  be  Chicago,  the  ^  ilitical  econ- 
omist, taking  account  of  merely  human  resources, 
will  find  it  an  easier  matter  to  explain  that  growth 
than  to  assign  the  causes  of  the  marvelous  trans- 
formation that  has  made  of  the  barren  wilderness 
on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Joseph  River  the  most 
splendid  sanctuary  of  Religion  and  Science  to  be 
found  on  this  continent,  if  not  in  the  whole  world. 
The  true  explanation  is  beyond  the  economist: 
Notre  Dame  was  built  with  "Hail  Marys." 

It  is  certainly  not  strange  that,  looking  upon  the 
material  evidences  of  the  success  which  so  abun- 
dantly crowned  the  faith  and  zeal  of  Father  Sorin, 
men  of  eminence  in  church  and  state  have  repeat- 
edly averred  that  the  University  which  he  founded 
is  both  the  grandest  tribute  offered  to  our  Lady  in 
the  Western  hemisphere  and  the  worthiest  monu- 
ment by  which  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  her 
Franco-American  son.  In  truth,  the  material  Notre 
Dame,  the  many  acres  of  fields  and  campuses, 
lakes  and  groves,  gardens  and  parterres;  the  star- 
crowned  colossal  statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  dom- 
inating at  a  height  of  more  than  two  hundred  feet 
the  golden  dome  of  the  central  edifice;  the  adja- 
cent noble  church,  that  treasure-house  of  religious 
art  and  beauty,  from  whose  tower  a  brazen- 
throated  giant  booms  out  the  Angelus  with  louder 
exultation  than  sounds  from  anv  other  belfrv  in 


288 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


the  land;  the  number,  variety,  and  thorough  equip- 
ment of  institutes  of  science  and  residence  halls 
and  religious  dwellings  scattered  over  this  Amer- 
ican Oxford — these  naturally  impress  the  minds, 
and  are  apt  to  elicit  the  enthusiastic  praises,  of 
transient  visitors  to  Our  Lady's  Indiana  home. 

And  yet,  without  minimizing  in  any  degree  the 
true  significance  of  the  noble  University — fully 
acknowledging,  on  the  contrary,  both  the  capital 
importance  of  the  Catholic  education  for  which  it 
stands,  and  the  far-reaching  beneficial  influence  of 
the  thousands  who  have  learned,  and  are  learning, 
within  its  halls  to  combine  practical  virtue  with 
intellectual  development,  it  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  Father  Sorin  did  not  found  a  work  still 
greater  than  the  University,  and  establish  his  fore- 
most claim  to  the  Blessed  Virgin's  favor,  when,  in 
1865,  he  began  the  publication  of  The  Ave  Maria. 
"They  who  declare  me  shall  have  life  everlasting," 
was  the  significant  text  of  our  Marian  Knight's  first 
sermon  on  the  Lady  of  his  choice;  and,  assuredly, 
through  few  other  agencies  in  either  hemisphere 
during  the  past  half-century  have  Mary's  dignity 
and  prerogf.  lives,  her  beauty  and  her  glory,  the 
quasi-omnipotence  of  her  supplication  and  the  un- 
fathomable depths  of  her  compassionate  tender- 
ness been  declared  so  constantly  and  adequately, 
with  such  loving  enthusiasm  and  persuasive  insist- 
ence, as  through  the  beneficent  pages  of  that  maga- 
zine "devoted  to  the  honor  of  the  Blessed  Virgin," 
and  wearing  as  its  felicitous  title  the  Angel  of  the 
Incarnations  greeting  to  the  Lily  of  Israel,  the 
Judean  Maiden  "full  of  grace." 


A   PRIESTLY    KNIGHT    OF    MARY 


289 


While  the  present  writer's  editorial  association 
with  the  magazine  during  half  its  lifetime  nat- 
urally hampers  his  pen  in  writing  of  its  merits,  it 
will  be  permissible  to  quote  here  two,  out  of  many 
hundred,  tributes  paid  to  its  excellence  by  com- 
petent eulogists.    The  first  is  found  in  Archbishop 
Ireland's  notable  sermon  on  the  occasion  of  Father 
Sorin's  sacerdotal  Golden  Jubilee,  in  1888.    "How 
much  he  has  done  to  extend  through  the  country 
the  sweet  devotion  to  Mar>',  I  need  not  lose  time  in 
telling.     Mary's  journal.  The  Ave  Maria,  weekly 
goes  from  Notre  Dame  to  scores  of  thousands  of 
Christian   homes   in   America;    and   hundreds  of 
practices  of  piety  are  made  common  that  other- 
wise would  not  be  known,  and  ten  thousand  acts 
of  love  are  uttered  that  Heaven  otherwise  would 
not  have  I     ird.     Of  course,  in  the  hurry  of  our 
American  life,  in  the  manifold  labors  which  we 
are  called  on  to  undertake  in  the  service  of  souls, 
the  danger  is  lurking  nigh  that  the  interior  life  be 
forgotten  and  we  become  as  sounding  brass.     A 
most  effective  remedy  is  devotion  to  Mary,  with 
all  its  supernal  fragrance,  and  all  its  sweet  inspira- 
tions to  piety  and  holiness."    Not  less  cordial  and 
laudatory  are  the  words  of  a  younger  member  oT 
the  hierarchy,  Archl.ishop  Mundelein,  in  his  ser- 
mon at  the  Diamond  .Tubilee  in  1917:     "And  not 
by  preaching  and  teaching  alone,  but  also  by  the 
printed  word  have  Father  Sorin  and  his  sons  ful- 
filled their  mission  in  spreading  the  word  of  God 
in  this  Innd.    Week  after  week,  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  have  they  sent  a  message  of  praise  to  Our 
Lady's  honor  into  every  part  of  the  English-speak- 

10 


^ 


290 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


ing  world,  and  fittingly  is  it  labeled  Ave  Maria.  In 
these  days  when  the  aim  of  most  journals  seems 
to  be  rather  to  startle  and  to  scold  than  to  instruct 
and  to  entertain,  when  our  nerves  are  shocked  and 
our  passions  roused  rather  than  our  attention  held 
and  our  humor  challenged,  The  Ave  Maria  comes 
into  our  homes  and  into  our  hands  like  a  honored 
guest,  like  a  charming,  gentle,  well-bred  lady,  with 
its  kindly  humor,  with  its  wholesome  bits  of  wis- 
dom, with  its  interesting  stories  for  young  and  old. 
It  is  one  of  our  few  journals  that  require  no  apol- 
ogy and  no  introduction,  for  once  welcomed  into  a 
home,  it  finds  its  way  into  the  heart,  and  is  surely 
missed  if  it  fails  to  return." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  career  of  our 
priestly  knight  of  Mary  was  not  lacking  in  those 
trials  and  troubles  and  fiery  ordeals  with  which 
Divine  Providence  seems  pleased  to  strew  the  way 
of  the  strongest  souls  and  the  most  efficient  work- 
ers for  His  glory.  Two  outstanding  afflictions  in  the 
history  of  Notre  Dame  merit  a  word  of  description. 
In  1854,  only  a  dozen  years  after  the  foundation, 
there  broke  out  an  epidemic  of  cholera  that  ravaged 
the  ranks  of  the  community,  carr\'ing  off  member 
after  member  with  a  rapidity  and  a  violence  that 
threatened  the  total  extinction  of  the  congregation 
in  the  United  States.  It  was  a  trial  calculated 
permanently  to  discourage  any  leader  of  less  than 
heroic  mold;  but,  indomitable  in  his  zeal  for  God's 
glory,  and  supremely  confident  in  the  unfailing 
assistanc.  of  his  Heavenly  Mother,  ither  Sorin 
not  only  preserved  his  own  courage  but  effectively 
rnllicd  the  drooping  spirits  of  all  his  surviving  co- 


A   PRIESTLY   KNIGHT    OF    MAKY         291 


laborers,  and  the  work  of  growth  and  expansion 
uninterruptedly  went  on.  A  quarter  of  century 
later,  in  1879,  a  disastrous  fire  in  a  few  hours 
reduced  to  ashes  not  only  the  main  university 
structure  but  almost  every  other  building  in  its 
immediate  neighborhood.  Apart  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  much  that  money  could  never  replace,  the 
financial  loss,  to  a  religious  community,  was  tre- 
mendous; and  the  available  insurance  was  trifling. 
The  way  in  which  the  disaster  was  met  serves  to 
illustrate,  better  than  could  pages  of  analytic  ex- 
position, the  spirit  which  ever  dominated  the 
founder  of  Notre  Dame  and  which  he  was  emi- 
nently successful  in  instilling  into  his  religious 
subjects.  With  whole-hearted  devotedness  and 
whole-souled  devotion  they  worked  and  prayed — 
nay,  rather,  they  prayed  and  worked.  The  first 
gift  received  by  Father  Sorin  towards  the  building 
of  a  new  university — it  was  a  check  for  one  thou- 
sand dollars — he  sent  to  a  priest  in  a  distant  city 
with  a  request  for  prayers  and  Masses  in  behalf  of 
Notre  Dame.  Trust  in  Providence  and  in  Our  Lady 
was  accompanied  in  those  heartrending  April  days 
of  1879,  as  always  in  the  history  of  Holy  Cross,  by 
untiring  personal  exertion  on  the  part  of  all  its 
members.  Before  the  ashes  of  the  old  buildings 
were  cold,  the  work  of  constructing  the  new  ones 
was  begun;  and  in  September  of  the  same  year 
they  were  opened  to  a  larger  concourse  of  students 
than  the  fire  had  dispersed. 

Nothing  has  been  said  as  yet  of  the  growth, 
during  the  late  Superior-General's  term  of  office,  of 
the  Congregation  of  Holy  Crof  i^  this  country;  of 


292 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


the  multiplication  of  colleges  and  parochial 
schools,  oft'shoots  of  Notre  Dame;  of  the  founda- 
tion of  St.  Mary's  Academy  (now  a  college  as  well), 
a  worthy  and  noble  sister  of  the  University;  or  of 
the  scores  of  other  educational  and  charitable  in- 
stitutions presided  over  by  the  zealous  Sisters  of 
Holy  Cross,  religious  daughters  who  ever  found  in 
Father  Sorin  the  wisest  of  counsellors  and  the 
staunchest  of  friends.  Nor  need  special  reference 
be  made  to  any  of  these  events  in  the  career  of 
our  Knight  of  Mar>'.  The  remarkable  fecundity  of 
his  labors,  as  evidenced  in  the  development  of 
Notre  Dame,  was  equally  a  characteristic  of  ever}' 
enterprise  that  he  undertook;  and  a  very  impor- 
tant factor  in  that  fecundity  vas  assuredly  his 
unhesitating  reliance  upon  the  aid  of  Her  for 
whom,  under  God,  ho  lived  and  worked. 

How  thoroughly  convinced  was  Father  Sorin 
himself  that  the  major  part  of  his  success  was  di- 
rectly due  to  the  auspicious  favor  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  need  he  told  to  none  who  ever  conversed 
with  him  for  fifteen  minutes.  Frankly  and  loyally, 
with  no  lurking  reserve  of  complacent  egoism  or 
overweening  self-conceit,  his  heart  and  lips  gave 
to  the  Mother  of  God  the  glory  of  his  triumphs; 
an  >  his  own  shortcomings  he  frequently  attrib- 
uted fact  that  such  triumphs  were  not  a  hun- 
dredfold greater.  Did  space  allow,  personal  remi- 
niscences by  the  score,  and  extracts  from  his  letters 
by  the  hundred,  could  be  cited  in  confirmation  of 
ail  that  has  been  written  of  his  love  of  Mary,  his 
unlimited  confidence  in  her  power  and  gracious- 
ness,  nnd  his  boundless  gratitude  for  the  signal 


A  PRIESTLY   KNIGHT   OF   MARY 


293 


favors  which  she  accorded  him.  Lying  before  us 
as  we  write  is  a  printed  volume  of  his  Circular 
Letters,  every-  page  of  which  gives  oUxiucnt  evi- 
dence on  each  of  these  points.  Of  only  a  very  few 
of  the  passages  which  we  have  marked  for  quota- 
tion can  we  now  avail  oursclf,  but  even  these  few 
will  suffice  for  our  purpose  and  fully  justify  the 
title  of  this  chapter. 

Writing  to  his  community  sixty-six  years  ago, 
at  the  completion  of  Notre  Dame's  first  decade,  he 
refers  to  his  arrival  in  the  district  ten  years  be- 
fore, and  relates  this  incident  of  his  first  hour  in 
the  snow-clad  wilderness :    "With  my  five  Brothers 
and  myself,  I  presented  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  all 
those    generous   souls   whom   Heaven    should   be 
pleased  to  call  around  me  on  this  spot,  or  who 
should  come  after  me."     That  the  offering  was 
forthwith  accepted,  and  blest  to  the  giver,  may  be 
judged  from  the  statement  made  in  the  sentence 
immediately  following  that  which  we  have  quoted: 
"From  that  moment  I  remember  not  a  single  in- 
stance of  a  serious  doubt  in  my  mind  as  to  the  final 
results  of  our  exertions."    Having  enumerated  a 
variety  of  occasions,  "of  which,  I  say  it  with  a  sen- 
timent of  deep  gratitude,  our  Blessed  Mother  has 
invariably  availed  herself  to  show  us  her  tender 
and  powerful  assistance,"  he  gives  in  the  following 
lines  the  keynote  of  his  character,  and  the  secret 
which  makes  his  whole  career  intelligible :    "Hence 
it  has  become  a  second  nature  for  us  to  recur  freely 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  to  tell  her  with  a  child- 
like simplicity  our  fears,  our  hopes,  our  sorrows, 
our  joys,  our  wants  and  desires,  our  gratitude  and 


294 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


iii 


II 


our  love."  Referring,  further  on  in  the  same  letter, 
to  the  manifold  benefits  which  the  community  had 
already  received  from  Heaven,  he  adds :  "I  would 
you  were  all  prompted  by  a  lively  sense  of  justice, 
of  humility,  and  of  gratitude,  often  to  repeat  in 
the  depths  of  your  hearts :  'After  God,  we  owe  all 
this  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary.* " 

In  a  letter  written  twenty  years  later,  in  1872, 
occurs  this  remark :  "An  experience  of  thirty  years 
has  taught  me  that  even  in  this  life  God  blesses 
human  efforts  surprisingly  when  the  cause  of  His 
Holy  Mother  is  interest  jd  in  them."  In  1880  he  de- 
clares: "Indifference  towards  our  biessed  Mother 
would  mean  complete  idiocy  in  me,  or  something 
worse  than  idiocy.  She  has  marked  too  many  days 
of  my  life  with  the  indelible  imprints  of  Her 
maternal  love  ever  to  leave  me  insensible."  And 
such  is  the  tenor  of  numberless  paragraphs  scat- 
tered through  thousands  of  official  and  personal 
lellers  written  by  this  steadfastly  loyal  son  of  Mary, 
from  the  Feast  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Holy  Cross 
in  1841,  when  he  said  his  first  Mass  in  the  land  of 
his  adoption,  to  the  vigil  of  All  Saints,  1893,  when 
hr  passed  away  to  the  land  of  his  love,  the  heavenly 
country  which  he  ever  deemed  his  only  true  home 
because  therein  his  Mother  dwelt. 

The  use  of  that  phrase,  "the  land  of  his  adop- 
tion," suggests  a  word  or  two  about  one  of  Father 
Sorin's  qualities  to  which  brief  reference  has  al- 
ready been  made,  his  sturdy  Americanism.  It  was 
foreshadowed  by  his  first  act  upon  landing  in  New 
York:  he  fell  on  his  knees,  and,  as  an  earnest  of 
unswerving  fealt>'  to  the  country  of  his  choice. 


A   PRIESTLY    KNIGHT    OF    MAKY 


295 


devoutly  kissed  the  soil.  In  a  siinilur  spirit  he  con- 
cluded his  first  letter  to  his  religious  superior  with 
the  words:  "Here  is  the  adoption  of  my  i»*herit- 
ance;  here  will  I  dwell  all  the  days  of  my  life."  No 
middle-aged  reader  of  these  pages  needs  to  be  told 
that  a  enaracteristic  of  the  average  foreign  priest 
who  came  to  this  country  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century,  and  more  especially  of  the  foreign  priest- 
educator,  was  a  reverential  and  almost  a  sacred 
regard  for  the  manners  and  methods,  the  rules  and 
regulations,  both  pedagogic  and  disciplinary, 
which  obtained  in  the  land  of  his  birth.  Changes 
suggested  by  the  novel  conditions  of  a  new  country 
and  the  different  mentality  of  a  democratic  people 
were  either  rejected  entirely  or  adopted,  if  adopted 
at  all,  only  after  long  decades  of  deliberation. 
Father  Sorin  was  a  conspicuous  exception  to  this 
general  rule.  He  seemed  to  imbibe  at  once  the 
spirit  of  the  country  and  the  age,  so  far  as  that 
spirit  was  favorable  to  the  interests  of  God  and  his 
Church;  and  both  class-rooms  and  recreation 
grounds  at  Notre  Dame  sf  on  gave  evidence  that  it 
was  an  American  college,  not  a  transplanted 
French  one. 

At  this  late  day  it  will  scarcely  be  considered 
an  indiscretion  to  narrate  an  incident  that  serves 
as  a  concrete  illustration  of  this  phase  of  our  hero's 
character.  One  member  of  his  faculty  in  the  early 
years  was  a  brilliant  young  French  priest,  his  own 
nephew,  whose  otherwise  estimable  personality 
was  slightly  tainted  with  chauvinism,  with  an  ex- 
aggerated devotion  to  his  native  France  and  a  cor- 
responding disparagement  of  the  United  States. 


I 


296 


SACERDOTAL   SAt  riGUARDS 


Repeated  admonitions  having  failed  to  remedy  this 
defect.  Father  Sorin  sent  for  him  one  day  and  said 
to  him:  "My  dear  Father,  your  sentiments  are 
admirably  suited  to  a  French  environment,  but  this 
is  America.  I  have  accordingly  secured  your  pas- 
sage on  the  next  transatlantic  steamer,  and  you 
will  sail  for  Paris  this  coming  Saturday." 

No  words  of  our  own,  however,  could  so  ade- 
quately or  so  eloquently  treat  this  portion  of  our 
theme  as  does  the  following  page  from  a  sermon 
already  mentioned,  that  of  Archbishop  Irelar  '  on 
the  occasion  of  Father  Sorin's  fiftieth  anniversary 
as  a  priest.  We  offer  no  apolog>'  for  quoting  at 
some  length,  for  much  of  the  passage  is  as  timely 
in  1918  as  it  was  in  1888: 

I  will  be  permitted,  before  I  conclude,  to 
note  in  Father  Sorin's  life  a  charajteristic  that 
proves  his  high-mindedness  and  has  contrib- 
uted in  no  small  degrees  to  his  success.  It  is 
his  sincere  and  thorough  Americanism.  From 
the  moment  he  landed  on  our  shores  he  ceased 
to  be  a  foreigner.  At  once  he  was  an  Amer- 
ican, heart  and  soul,  as  one  to  the  manner 
born.  The  Republic  of  the  United  States  never 
protected  a  more  loval  and  more  devoted  citi- 
zen. He  understood  and  appreciated  our  lib- 
eral institutions;  there  was  in  his  heart  no 
fondness  for  old  regimes  or  worn-out  legit- 
imism. For  him  the  government  chosen  by 
the  people  was,  as  Leo  aIII  repeatedly  teaches, 
the  legitimate  government,  and  to  his  mind  the 
people  had  well  chosen  when  they  resolved  to 
govern  themselves.  He  understood  and  appre- 
ciated the  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  of  the 
American  people,  and,  becoming  one  of  them, 
spoke  to  them  and  labored  for  them  from  their 


A  PRIESTLY    KNIGHT   OP   MARY 


297 


plane  of  thought  and  fashion,  and  he  was  un- 
derstood and  appreciated  by  them.  No  one 
has  the  right  to  live  as  a  citizen  of  America 
and  remain  in  hi*-  soul  a  foreigner,  and,  espe- 
cially, should  no  one  remain  un-A.mericau  in 
America  who  represents  the  Church,  for  he 
may  give  to  believe  that  the  Church  is  un- 
American.  We  have  often  lost  ground  because 
we  were  Irish,  or  German,  or  French,  rather 
than  American.  Mav  there  be  among  us  no 
danger  of  the  kind*  in  the  future!  Father 
Sorin,  I  thank  you  for  your  American  patriot- 
ism, your  love  of  American  institutions. 

And  here  I  will  recall  one  act  of  your  life 
for  which  American  Catholics  must  needs  be 
grateful  to  vou :  it  was  the  act  of  the  priest  as 
well  as  of  the  American.  Civil  war  was  upon 
the  land;  defenders  of  the  Union  were  hurr\'- 
ing  from  North  and  West  to  the  battlefield, 
and  among  them  in  goodly  proportion  brave 
Catholics.  I  will  not  discuss  the  cause;  but  it 
is  a  lamentable  fact  that  few  priests  were  sent 
to  the  front  to  minister  to  the  soldiers.  The 
fact  must  ever  be  regretted.  Father  Sorin's 
communitv  was  weak  in  numbers;  the  absence 
of  one  stopped  important  work  at  home.  He 
sent  forward  six  to  serve  as  chaplains,  two  of 
whom.  Fathers  Corby  and  Cooney,  are  with  us 
this  moi-iing  to  tell  of  the  need  there  was  of 
priests  among  our  soldiers,  and  of  the  great 
things  done  for  religion  by  themselves  and 
their  fellow-chaplains.  Father  Sorin  appealed 
to  the  Sisters  of  Holy  Cross,  and  thev,  brave 
as  they  were  tender  of  heart,  rushed  South- 
ward to  care  for  the  wounded  and  soothe  the 
pillow  of  the  dying.  Few  things  were  done  in 
the  past  half-century  to  break  down  more 
effectually  anti-Catholic  prejudice  than  the 
sending  of  our  generous  Sisters  to  the  battle- 


298 


SACERDOTAL  SAFEGUARDS 


it 

III 

fleld  and  the  military  hospitals.  The  soldiers 
venerated  the  Sisters,  and  never  since  have 
they  ceased  repeating  their  praises.  There 
were  other  priests  and  other  Sisters  in  the 
war:  those  oT  Holy  Cross  made  up  the  greater 
part  of  the  roster;"  none  excelled  them  m  dar- 
ing feat  and  religious  fervor;  no  other  order, 
no  diocese,  made,  for  the  purpose,  sacrifices  as 
did  that  of  Holy  Cross.  Father  Sorin,  you 
saved  the  honor  of  tlie  Church.  I  speak  from 
a  special  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  speak 
from  my  heart:  and  could  the  country's  mar- 
tyrs speak  from  the  silent  earth  at  Gettysburg 
and  a  hundred  other  gory  fields,  their  voices 
would  reecho  willi  our  own  in  your  praise  on 
this  glorious  anniversary. 

With  these  glowing  words  of  panegyric  we  may 
fittingly  bring  this  chapter  to  a  close.  Half  a  decade 
after  the  celebration  of  his  golden  jubilee.  Father 
Sorin  passed  quietly  away.  His  life  is  done;  but 
the  spirit  in  which  he  lived  it  survives  in  many  a 
hundred,  privileged  to  come  in  contact  with  his 
inspiring  personality,  and  potently,  if  not  always 
consciously,  influenced  by  the  atmosphere  of  faith 
which  habitually  surrounded  him.  "Great  men 
grow  greater  with  t^e  lapse  of  time,"  and  a  later 
century  will  estimate  his  worth  a»-d  work  more 
adequately  far  than  can  our  own.  The  perspective 
of  additional  years  is  needed  so  to  view  him  that 
he  will  assume  his  due  proportions  among  the 
heroes  of  the  Church  in  America;  but  this  much 
at  least  even  now  is  clear:  In  the  most  active  and 
progressive  region  of  an  active  and  progressive 
land  he  taught  the  lesson  that  religious  zeal  can 
work  still  greater  marvels  than  can  the  unhallowed 


A   PRIESTLY    KNI3HT    OF    MARY 


299 


ambition  for  wealth  and  power;  that  men  of  (loil 
are  in  no  way  debarred  from  being  emphatically 
"men  of  their  times";  and  that  in  our  day,  as  in  tlu- 
Middle  Ages,  the  knight  who  protTers  his  homage 
to  the  Queen  of  Virgins,  wears  her  colors,  and 
wields  his  lance  in  her  cause,  battles  with  prowess 
invincible,  and  even  before  he  doft's  life's  armor 
reaps  of  his  valor  a  reward  exceeding  great. 


INDEX 


U<- 


Page 
A.  B.  C  of  the  spiritual  life.  123 
Abstinence,  Faatlng  and...  121 
"Acts  of  Ood"  as  mortlflca- 

tlons     ll** 

Adage,    A    clerical 49 

Adverbs    and   adverbial 

phrases    210 

Their  collocation  Important  210 
Common  errors  in  using. .  211 

Affability,   Scott  on 141 

St.   Paul  on 142 

"All  things  to  all  men" 142 

Altar,  The  right  side  of  the.  95 
American    Priests    and   For. 

IhUssions    9 

Americanism  of  Father  Sorln  204 
America's  aid  to  Missions..     10 

Apostolic    poverty 169 

Apothegm,  Sherman's  229 

Aquinas.     St.     T  h  o  ni  a  s. 

Physique  of  63 

Army,   language  as  an 198 

Ascetic,    or  dyspeptic? 63 

Attention,    Economy   of 214 

Attitude  '  f  travelling  cleric.  274 
Augustine,  St.,  on  travelling  259 
Automobiles,   Priests  and. . .  234 

Criticism  of   235 

Common-sense  view  of. . .  236 

Ave    Maria,    The 288 

Archbishop  Ireland  on 289 

Archbishop  Mundeleln  on.  289 
Aversion  to  certain  foods...  56 
Avarice  and  priests 176 

Baccalaureate  sermons,  etc.     43 

Bearing,    A  priest's 140 

Benediction    ceremonies 86 

Betty  Hlgdon  a  type 253 

Bernard,  St.,  on  religious...  130 

Bishop,    Naming   a 218 

Blretta  at  Mass 106 

Blair,  Dr  ,  on  grammar IS." 

on  arrangement  of  words.  21 

Blunderer,  A  dietetic 61 

Bolting  one's  food 64 

Bookkeeping   and    priests...   183 

Books,   Some  useful 148 

Boys'  spirit  of  romance 21 

Breakfasts,  Hearty  and  light    52 


Page 

Breviary,  The  abridged 230 

Brlght's  disease,  in  America    61 

Causes    of 62 

Brotherhood  of  man.  The...  25G 

Candles,  Carrying  unlighted.  106 
Canon  465  of  the  New  Codex.  260 
Carlyle  on  Abbot  Samson...  138 

Capital  and  labor 249 

Catechism    centres 42 

Catholic    atmosphere 31 

Catholic  Instruction  League.     42 

Censer,   Swinging  the 90 

Cereals  for  breakfast 63 

Charity  of  Priests,   The 

Fraternal  66 

Charity,   St.  John  on 68,    69 

of  rectors  and  curates 72 

Organized    251 

Chauvinism  and  patriotism. .  271 
Children,  Catholic,  in  public 

schools    40 

Chivalry  still  extant 280 

Clb  >-lum — When  covered?...     95 

Purification    of 96 

Emptying  at  Communion.     97 
Circumabulatlng  the  slobe. .  269 

Clearness  of  sentences   204 

Better  than  harmony 210 

Clerical  Club-Night,  A 216 

Clerical  handbooks  compared  240 
Collections  for  the  Missions.  17 
Colors  of  chasuble  and  dal- 

nxatics    109 

Communion  card 100 

Communion  outside  of  Mass.  108 

Conference,  Queries  at  a 85 

Conslstorlal  Congregation...  219 

Conversions  and  money 13 

Converts,  Protestant,  in 

India    14 

Convert- makers    135 

Cooks  and  civilized  man 51 

Cosmopolitan  difficulty,  A . . .  160 
(^ouncll,  Baltimore,  on  house- 
keepers      164 

Critical    curates 64 

Critics  of  careful  speech 214 

Custody  of  the  eyes 124 

800 


INDEX 


301 


Dally  Communion  and  voca- 
tions     J? 

Getting  Into. 


182 


poverty  ^*' 

love '^ 

epithets 80 

77 

78 


"111 


189 


I>ebt, 
Decent 
Degrees'  ot 
Detracting 
Detraction    

Fallacy    about 

and  vanity ^'» 

Diction.   Impropriety   of •■'J'-' 

EJxamples   of   faulty 

Dictation    

Diet.  History  of  man's &" 

should  vary  with  activities.     58 
Dlfllculty.    A  cosmopolitan..   l«o 

of  a  flowing  style   l';|^ 

Diatasle  for  certain  foods 

Dogberry.    A   clerioiU 

Dryden  on  English 

Eating,  MortiOcatlon  In 122 

Economy  of  attention 214 

Education,  Christian -J> 

HusUin   on -'' 

Educational    zeal 30 

Golden  mean   in 31 

Emptying  the  (iborlum !*' 

English.  The  IHibrics  of. 
Entering  the  sanctuary. 
Episcopal   appointments. 

Epithets,    Detracting S'^ 

Evening  Mall.  Chi.,  quoted. 

Experlentiae  Doctor  

E^yes,  Custody  of  the 

Faber.  F;i(her,  Physlaue  of. 
Factors  in  di<tary  studies.. 

Faddists  about   dieting ^ 

F.aloonio,  Cardinal,  on  Little 

SistlTS     

Fallacies  aljo\it  eating •'2 

Fashions  In  teaching 33 

Fast,  The  dominical ■'- 

Fasting,    Habitual ^3 

and  abstinence \-\ 

Fatherhood  of  God 

Favorite  meal    

Financial     wisdom,     MIoaw 

ben's    

Finger  bowl  Jit  Lavabo 

IMint.  Dr..  on  diet  fads 


Page 
Flippant  talk  about  rubrics..     »3 

Foreign   Missions 9 

and  American  Catholics...     10 

Protestants  and 1* 

Forgiveness  of  tnjui  los '<2 

Forgiving  and  forgetting *<3 

Forty  Hours  c-eri>moiii.s 1<>6 

Francis  de  Sales,   St.,   .m 

charity    "^ 

Frankenstein,   A  civic 

Fraternal  Charity  of  Priests 

The 

Frerl.  Mgr..  quot.'d 

Friendly  relations  with  prot 

estants 
"Frills"   In 


48 

66 
16 

144 


P4 
218 


4rt 

r.M 
OS 

r.'.» 


ir>2 


schools 34 

Gasparri  on  solitary  Masses.   Iu3 

Gastronomic  errors 5 ' 

C.elermann,  Fath.r.  quoted..  213 
Genutlectlng  at  I^enediction.  S6 
Gibbons,   Card.,   on   Prop,   of 

the  Faith 

Golden  mean  in  friendliness, 

The    

Goldsmith's     style,     (^>mpli- 

ment    to 

"Good  mixer,"  On  lieiim:  a.. 

Gospel  prudence 

Gospel,  Living  by  the 167 

Gossips.    Priestly    ""^i 

Gourmands  and  gourmets...     C5 
G  ra  mmar,  an  Interestliit; 

study   i;*J 

Blair  on I-*' 

. . .  ins 


16 
143 

192 
15 


Dr. 

W.  D.  Whitney  on 

Richard  Grant  White  on. 


196 


125 

76 

11.! 


2;>f. 


ISl 
55 


Hair-shirt,  The  best 

Hatred  among  priests... 

Hedonism  of  the  age 

Helping  the  tramp 

Heresy,     Alistniel    and 

crete    

Heretics.  Material J3^ 

Hitting  below  the  belt 22u 

Holidays,  recognized  as  nor- 
mal    ;; ' 

and  second  nature -B3 

not  needed  by  sonic  cl.rles.  2«'.S 
Philosophy  of 


U2 


2r,5 


I 


302 


INDEX 


Page 
Holy  Childhood  Association.     12 

Its   efficacy 13 

Holy  Cross  chaplains  In  Civil 

War  297 

Housekeeper,   The  Priest's..  150 
Hyderabad    missionary 
quoted  13 

Ideal  teachers 31 

Impropriety  of  diction 200 

Examples  of 201 

Incensingr,  Correct  way  of...  90 

Mistakes  in 92 

Individual  Influence 137 

Insufllclency    of    the    "pen- 
ance"     119 

Ireland,  Archbishop,  Sermon 

of 296 

Jenkins,  Father,  and  house- 
keepers    151 

John,  St.,  on  charity 68,  69 

Journal  of  Education  quoted.  45 

"Judge    Not" 84 

Keeping  one's  place 165 

Klntzlng,  Dr.,  quoted 49 

Knight  of  Mary.  A  Priestly. .  280 

Laity's  duty  to  For.  Missions    11 

Language  as  an  army 198 

Lavabo,  Finger  bowl  at  the.  100 

Lay  help  in  social  work 255 

Lent,  Medical  journal  on 121 

Leo,  Father,  Austerity  of 112 

Leo   Xm   and    social    ques- 
tions    244,  250 

Letter  of  recommendation.  A  204 

Lex  tallonis 83 

Limerick,  An  ancient 228 

Lingo,  A  bit  of 233 

Literature  of  the  Mlsslon.s..     22 

lilterary  style 190 

Little    Sisters    of    the    Holy 

Family  152 

Little  things  Important 122 

Living  by  the  Gospel 167 

I>ove.  Degrees  of 70 

lyove  of  First  Christians.  The    67 
Lucretius  on  food  and  poison    M 


Page 

Luxury  in  rectories 170 

I  vons,  S.  J.,  Father  John    i.     41 

Mach,  S.  J.,  quoted 189 

Mammon,  Mortgaged  to 177 

Maryknoll,  N.  Y II 

Material  heretics 131 

Mass,  The  solitary 101 

Mass  at  sea 105 

Massy-Miassy,   Sir  Thomas..  226 

Meal,   Favorite 52 

Best  clerical 66 

Meddling   with    parish    mat- 
ters    164 

Meditation,  as  mortification.  126 

Not  difficult 127 

Books  of 118 

Equivalent  f  r 128 

Meredith,  Ow    i,  on  dining. .  51 

Mlcawber's  financial  wisdom.  ISl 

Ministers,  The  priest   and. . .  145 

Mission  houses  In  IT.  S 20 

Money  and  conversions 13 

Money-grabbing  priests 168 

Monstrance,     Blessing    with 

the  89 

Moriarty,  Bishop,  quoted 177 

Mortification,  Priestly  Ill 

necessary  to  salvation ....  115 

Saints  on 115 

of  religious 117 

in  eating 122 

Motives  of  charity 75 

Motor-car  travelling 268 

Mundelein,  Abp.,  on  Foreign 

Missions   24 

on  Ave  Maria 289 

Naming  of  bishops,  The 218 

National  vanity.  A  cure  for. .  272 

Natal.  Bishop  of 104 

Neighbor,  Who  is  our 70 

Notre  Dame,  Indiana 286 

Ocean  travel 266 

Delights  of 267 

O'Connell  and  a  bigot 226 

On  being  the  "whole  pu.sh". .  257 
O'Reilly.     Boyle,     on     being 
Irish  228 


INDEX 


303 


Organised  charity 

"Outside  the  Church,  etc." 


Pa»;e 

.  .   251 


Pa«e 


Its    and     Kor.    Mls- 


at 


131,  ^46 
Forty 


107 


Pange    Lingua 

Hours   

Parental   responsibility 40 

Paradox.  A  consoling 15 

Parsing,  Burlesque 15*4 

Paschal    candle    at    Forty 

Hours    !<'■' 

Pastor  and  pedagogy.  The. . .     31 
••Penance,"    Insufficiency    of 

the  \\l 

Penance  defined i23 

Philadelphia  schools 47 

Phillips,  Wendell 224 

Plus  X  and  For.  Missions . . . 

on  priests'  social  work 

Plato  quoted 

Portrait,  or  caricalure,  A 

Poverty,  Apostolic 

Precision  in  use  of  words 

Precept  of  the  Church,  The 

fifth  

Instruction  on 

Priests*     generosity,     Amer- 
ican     

Priest  and  the  School,  The. . 
Priests.  Three  categories  of. 
without  a  parish  school. . . . 
not  angels 


and 


ministers ^^^ 


and  business  knowledge 

and  charitable  action 180 

Priest     and     Non-Catholics. 
The  

Priest  and  Social  Problems, 

The  

Priest  as  Traveller.  The 

Priest's  Ho\isekeeper.  The. . . 

Priest's  Table.  The 

Priestly  Knight  of  Mar>-.  A 


Priestly  Mortification HI 

Pronouns,  Importance  of 

Proper  place  of 

Errors  in  using 207. 

Prop,   of  the  Faith,  Purpose 
of  the 

and  the  Church  in  U.  S . . 


Protc 

sions  '  * 

Prudence.  Gospel 15 

Public    schools,    not    Protes- 
tant    *' 

criticized    ** 

Pinis    226 

Quasi-luxury    1^9 

Queries  at  ii  Conference 85 

Qulntilian  on  clearness 205 

Railway  travel 270 

Record.   A  walking 269 

Recreation.  A  literary 232 

Red   chasuble,    white  dal- 
matics    109 

Relatives  in  priests*  houses..  1B6 

Arguments  for 1^7 

Objections  to 168 

Religious,  the  ideal  teachers.     SI 

St.  Bernard  on 130 

Repartees   22S 

Right  side  of  the  altar.  The. .     95 

Romance  In  boys 21 

Rubrical  Odds  and  Ends 85 

Rubrics  of  English,  The 189 

Rubrics,    receptive    and    di- 
rective       *5 

Flippant  Ulk  about .......     93 

Rule   of   life  and  secular 

priests,    A 130 

Rulas  for  the  Pastort  of  Souls  145 
Ruskln  on  education 26 

Saints  on  Mortification.  The.  115 

Samson.   Abbot l'* 

Sanctuary.  Entering  the 94 

Scannell.  Dr..  quoted 242 

SrlKKl.  The  Priest  and  the..     26 

Schools.   Public *2 

School  system.  Catholic 27 

not  yet  Ideal 28 

Scott  on  affability 1*1 

Sea,  Mass  at 1^^ 

■l(\e,       Seculars  and  a  rule  of  life .  ■ . 

20f,       Seminaries.  Social  studies  In. 

20S       Shakespeare  on  surfeiting. .. 

Sherman's  apothegm  on  war. 

12       Sisters,  as  sacristans,  etc. . . . 

16  Pastoral  appreciation  of.    . 


23 
245 

50 
160 
169 
203 

172 
174 

9 
26 
27 
39 

49 


1S4 


131 

239 

259 

150 

49 

280 


130 

244 

49 

229 

35 

36 


304 


INDEX 


Page 


37 
292 


193 

74 

246 

239 
25S 
101 
103 


271 


Sisters,  outdoor  exercise  of 

of  Holy  Cross 

In  Civil  Wax 297 

Slang   ^^* 

Smart  retort  discounted,  A 
Smith,  Sydney,  on  Macaulay. 

Social  topics,  A  list  of 

Social  Problems,   The  Priest 

and  

Sodality  work.  Extension  of. 

Solitary  Mass,  The 

G;isparrl  on 

Solomon  and  "the  new" 239 

Sonnet,  A ^* 

Sophistry  about  mortification  114 

Serin,  Father  Edward 282 

His  devotion  to  Our  Lady..  283 

His  Americanism 297 

Spread-eagleism  and  patriot 

Ism    

Snueers,    Mr.,    as    gramma- 
rian    19* 

Stations,  Going  around  the..  129 

Style  defined ^^O 

Surfeiting  ^~ 

Superfluous    m  o  n  t-  y.    Best 

place  for 

SwinRing  the  censer. . . 
Synonyms  

Table.  The  Priest's 

Talking  at  Table 64 

Techny,  Illinois ^^^ 

Terna,  The 219 

Text,  A  suggested 1 '  - 

Thompson,    Francis,    on    the 

child  

Tlllotpon.  Abp.,  on  wills 185 

Toleiance.  An  undue 163 

Tongue.  Mortification  of  the.  125 
"Too."  A  fantastic  use  of...   212 

Toujours  perdrlx  ^54 

Tramp,  Helping  the 

Traveller,  The  Priest  as.... 
Travol,  T'ses  of 

A    danger    of 

Independent     

Tribute,   to  Catholic   schools 

An    infrequent 125 

Trifiop.   Michael  Angelo  on..     **5 


Page 

Undue    tolerance.    An 163 

Unllghtcd  candles ll^S 

Useful    books.    Some 1*8 


Vacations 

Utility  of 

Vanity,   Detraction  and 

Vegetating  versus  living 

Views  of  foreigners,  Discol- 
ored    

Vincent    de    Paul,     St.,     on 

charity    

on  mortification  of  the  ap- 
petite     

Vocabulary,  A  priest's 

Vocations     for     the     Mis- 
sions   1^' 

How  to  secure  them 

Voltaire  on  eating 


188 

90 

203 

49 


2G 


261 

262 

79 

264 

274 

84 

123 
199 

19 
21 
60 

269 
10 


■Walking  

War's    effect,    on    For.    Mis- 
sions, The 

Way  of  the  Cross.  The 129 

Wesley,   John,   on   cocksure- 
ness   J^ 

Well-to-do   comfort 1" 

White,   R.    Grant,   on  gram- 
mar      "« 

■^VTiitney,   W.    D.,    on   gram- 
mar    •  ^^B 

Williams,  Dr.  H.   S..   quoted 

52,     55 

Wills,  Tillotson  on 185 

Time  to  make  them 1|6 

Priestly   1»» 

A  model  of i"' 

Wiseman.  Tard.,  on  Foreign 

Missions  9 

Within  IVIy  Parish  quoted...  146 
162 


252 

259 
270 

27S 
33 


Woman's  will,   A 

Woman     Elevated     Through 

our  L.ady 


281 


Young    housekeepers 165 

Young  priests   and   extrava- 
gance    


180 


Zial  in  convert-making. 
Zorn  in  occupations 


134 
26 


•:Sim:    '<&>  f^mttmw 


